Praying Mercenary (1)
In the forest, where the bitter winter wind was blowing, three men who looked like mercenaries were sitting around making a bonfire.
Muttering-
Looking at the boy who was drinking soup with his nose stuck in the pot.
“I was lucky. “There was a rabbit standing in the distance, praying.”
“good. good job.”
The boys had already eaten what was left of the rabbit soup, but the boy was so appreciative of it that he licked up every last drop.
The mercenaries realized that now was not the time to talk to the boy and began talking among themselves.
“By the way, I heard it brings people together.”
“To subdue monsters?”
“It looks like Count Bayezid’s son is stepping forward this time. “Second or something.”
“I heard the Bishop of Varna is also there. “I think it will be big.”
“You are struggling to please your father.”
Like a mercenary, he was talking about subjugating monsters, but the men’s minds were entirely focused on the blonde-haired boy.
‘Does he seem like an expensive guy?’
‘Look at the sword he’s holding. At least he’s from the same family he lives in.’
‘He’s got blonde hair and blue eyes, so if I just sell him, I’ll get a lot of money, right?’
The men, who exchanged opinions quietly with glances and whispers so that the boy who was far away could not hear them, slowly began to move.
By cleverly blocking the boy’s escape route.
“Ha…thank you. “Thanks to you, I survived.”
“To be thankful, you have to help and live.”
“How should I repay this favor?”
The mercenaries smiled, showing their black teeth, as they looked at the boy who put down the pot and bowed his head politely to express his gratitude.
“If you really appreciate something, there is a way to repay it.”
“What should I do…”
“You just have to repay with your own body!”
A noose made of rope flew in from behind the boy.
“uh? “Huh?”
“Hey dude! What are you doing!”
However, instead of the boy who was supposed to be caught, a mercenary was caught in the noose.
“You’re as quick as a rat!”
The two remaining mercenaries quickly drew their weapons towards the boy who had escaped the noose.
“It looks like our master learned a little bit of swordsmanship from the instructor his father gave him. Isn’t this a real world war?”
“When you say something nice, put down your sword. “Before I hit you with one punch and make it into a tropical storm.”
While the mercenary tied to the noose quickly untied the rope, two mercenaries blocked the boy and started growling.
“that’s right. “Life is practical.”
Blonde hair and blue eyes.
And a sword that shines but looks unused.
Anyone could see that he looked like a runaway from a wealthy family, but the smile on the boy’s face now was that of a ferocious wolf.
“what?”
“I thought about it while I was walking here. “If these people are truly kind to me, how can I repay them?”
Grumbling-
Even though the mercenaries were making harsh threats, the boy’s spirit did not die at all.
Rather, the mercenaries were swallowing their saliva without realizing it at the sight of the boy pulling out his sword.
The boy with the sword was giving off a ferocious spirit.
“What have you been worrying about for no reason?”
The boy was laughing.
“Hey Nimmi.”
They are the same kind.
That guy is not some kind of boy who doesn’t know anything about the world.
“What are you doing! Wake up quickly!”
“You untie the rope all day!”
Even so, it’s okay.
Because that little guy was one and they were three.
They seem to be confident in their swordsmanship, but if they have experience in actual combat, they would be able to subdue them.
“Uuuuuuuuu!”
I thought that would be the case, but the moans coming from my colleague behind me were unusual.
“What are you doing!”
“Ugh! eww!”
A colleague who was tied to a noose was scratching the ground, looking strangely frozen.
It wasn’t a normal movement.
‘I got hit!’
The two mercenaries felt a deep sense of disappointment as they watched their colleague stiffen as if he were addicted to something.
‘whenever!’
I knew who did it.
The boy was laughing as he watched his colleague stiffen.
But I don’t know when the poison was added…
‘rabbit!’
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The mercenaries, who had finally figured out the situation, looked at the boy with shocked expressions.
“Nothing in this world is easy. right?”
“This bastard from the beginning!”
The stumbling rabbit that I thought was unexpected luck was actually a trap.
“You too, you too…!”
The mercenaries felt despair as they felt their bodies slowly hardening.
“Yeah, I ate it too.”
Vlad said, taking out a leaf hidden under his tongue.
“Like an antidote.”
“eww! Ugh!”
The slowly hardening bodies fell onto the cold snow.
“The real thing is you don’t know who will be successful and when. Isn’t that right, seniors?”
A black shadow fell over the three frozen rabbits.
The blue eyes of the shadow were the last thing they saw.
※※※※
Tadak-taddak-
In the winter forest as the sun was setting, a blond boy who looked like a mercenary was sitting alone.
It didn’t fit the body exactly, but judging by the armor and clothes underneath, it didn’t look like it would freeze on a winter day.
“This is really happening.”
Vlad muttered to himself as he stirred the campfire with kindling.
At least on the outside it would seem that way.
[I was lucky. Yellow striped mushrooms weren’t that common.]
“What on earth do you do when you know about the mushroom that paralyzes people and the leaf that detoxifies it?”
[······I don’t know that.]
The boy wasn’t talking to himself.
He was speaking to a voice that could only be heard by holding a sword.
“You know a lot of things, but you don’t know who you are.”
[······.]
The boy’s voice was silent as he grumbled.
“It doesn’t matter.”
Grumbling-
The boy said, pulling out his sword.
“Because this is the most important thing to me.”
It had been a sword that had only been watched, but now it was in the boy’s hand.
The boy will forever remember the tears he shed to have this.
“I will help you, please help me.”
[Aren’t I scared?]
To the voice that said he didn’t know who he was, the boy asked to know the sword.
“I don’t care if you are the devil. “What I’m really afraid of is.”
Blue moonlight fell on the boy’s sword.
The brightly shining light reminded me of someone.
“Because my biggest fear is that I am nothing.”
An aura that looks like blue moonlight.
The boy was nothing in front of that auror.
For a boy who had chased after something shiny even in the mud his whole life, the feeling of helplessness brought about by the blue aura was so terrible.
you are nothing
It’s just a life that will stay curled up like this and rot in the gutter for the rest of its life.
The blue moonlight Auror was saying that.
“If I’m with you, anything is possible. “At least a devil follower.”
[······okay. I’ll tell you.]
So the boy decided to struggle.
Even if I wanted to give up, there was a weight in my hand that made it impossible for me to do so.
Moonlight and bonfire.
On the same night that he first saw an Auror, a boy who wanted to become something and a voice that did not know himself decided to help each other.
It was a contract that only those two could make.
The moon in the night sky was its witness.
※※※※
Now is the time to enter midwinter.
Tents were erected between white fields covered with snow, in front of a dense coniferous forest.
Inside the largest and most colorful tent.
“It’s okay.”
A black-haired man was reviewing the documents in front of his desk, lifting a cup of tea that had already cooled down.
Although he looked young, the area under his eyes had turned black, making the man look sickly.
“It’s so average.”
The black-haired man was frowning as he looked at the documents to see what he didn’t like.
“young master.”
At that moment, the tent was opened and a one-eyed man came in accompanied by the cold winter wind.
“Are you here, Zayar?”
“yes. Joseph has now returned.”
The man named Jayar brushed off the snow from his shoulders and approached the sick-looking man.
“No matter what your worries…”
When Josef, whom he had served his entire life, did not look good, Zayar asked carefully.
“It’s so normal.”
Josef was lost in thought as he looked at the documents in front of him.
“The monster defeat is progressing easily. “There were not many casualties, and they were all caused by mercenaries.”
“Aren’t there missing people?”
Josef said, taking a sip of his cooled tea cup.
“It doesn’t matter if you consider him a deserter.”
From Josef’s perspective, it would have been better if there had been injuries or deaths while subduing monsters.
The fact that there are deserters means that discipline is not properly established.
“With unremarkable results, even deserters. Everyone will have doubts about my commanding abilities. “My father will do the same.”
At that moment, a sharp light appeared in Josef’s eyes.
“My half-brother too.”
Josef.
Josef Bayezid.
As the second son of the Bayezid family, he was now anxious.
“These are the troops that were barely raised to avoid Brother’s interference. “If not now, I will never have a chance to show my military capabilities to my vassals.”
Josef was an ambitious man.
He was the legitimate ancestor of the Bayezid family and was trying to become the next Count Bayezid by pushing out Rutger, who inherited the same blood.
“If we continue like this, we will be destroyed.”
“······.”
Becoming the next Count Bayezid was not simply an ambition.
Two suns cannot exist under the same sky.
It was obvious what Rutger, his half-brother, would do if he did not become Count Bayezid.
“If you do well, you will live in a monastery for the rest of your life, or you will die without anyone knowing.”
History proved it.
Because he was the one who came up trampling on his brothers who were related by blood to his father.
“I don’t have enough swords to use. “Except for you, Zayar.”
In order for Josef to become the next Count Bayezid, he needed not only his own ability but also the support of his vassals.
However, Josephus, who was born sickly, found it difficult to gain the support of his vassals, no matter how much help he had from his mother and maternal family.
Because the Bayezid family was a family that revered martial arts.
“······Master, I have something to tell you.”
“Tell me.”
Zayar hesitated for a moment and spoke to Josef, who was caressing his temple as if he had a headache.
“There is a suspicious mercenary.”
“Suspicious mercenary?”
Josef’s eyes narrowed when he heard something completely unexpected.
“Are you a spy sent by your brother?”
“I’m not saying it’s suspicious in that sense.”
“Then what does it mean?”
Xayar was a knight.
A solid article too.
However, Zayar’s hesitation to speak in front of Josef was not what he usually saw.
He wasn’t sure.
“Tell me. Zayar.”
Josef, realizing that the matter was more serious than expected, pressed for an answer.
“I think you have to see it for yourself to understand. Would you like to follow me for a moment?”
“It looks like something happened.”
When his knight behaved differently than usual, Josef realized that what Zayar was talking about was unusual.
“Guide me.”
Josef put on a thick coat and wrapped himself in a scarf and gloves to avoid being hurt by the cold winter wind.
“This is the place.”
In order to prevent the sickly young master from breathing the cold winter air, Xayar guided him as quickly as possible, throwing away all respect for the knight.
It was a dirty tent.
“Isn’t this a slaughterhouse?”
“That’s right. “This is where the important parts of the defeated monsters are excavated.”
Josef quickly covered his mouth with his handkerchief and looked around.
It wasn’t because the hanging corpses and the smell of blood were disgusting.
Josef’s spirit was stronger than that of any other knight, but his body was so weak that he had to be careful of even the polluted air floating around in the tent.
“Here.”
Zayar guided Josef deeper into the slaughterhouse.
In the deepest part of the slaughterhouse, corpses of various types of monsters were hanging.
At an estimate, there were six corpses.
“Look.”
Zayar personally turned the hanging corpses around and showed them to Josef.
“Do you want to see the wound?”
“That’s right.”
The goblin had been frozen for a long time and had a sword mark engraved on its back.
“It’s crooked.”
Josef expressed his impressions in an unimpressed tone.
The sword marks just shown seemed to have been made by someone who had just recently picked up a sword.
After Josef finished speaking, Xayar pointed to the monster’s corpse hanging next to him.
Wounds.
The body was full of sword marks not only on the back but also all over the body.
From left to right.
From old corpses to the corpses of orcs that have just arrived.
After examining all the corpses, Josef unconsciously removed the handkerchief from his mouth.
“Could it be that they were all made by one person?”
“That’s right. young master.”
As soon as he heard Zayar’s answer, Josef moved back to the place where the first body was.
He always walked slowly, but now he could be said to be running.
“Nonsense······.”
It had to be that way.
“How old is this body?”
“It’s been a little over a month.”
“Only one month…”
Josef was astonished at Zayar’s answer and carefully examined the monsters’ corpses once again.
Sword marks.
Jagged and shabby wounds.
However, as we get closer to the corpses of new monsters, the wounds that someone said were made become clearer and deeper.
“someone?”
It formed a solid line.
“This is a man named Lehman. “He’s a blonde young man.”
“Riemann?”
Zayar approached Josef and whispered quietly.
“The mercenaries called him ‘Praying Lehman.’”
“It is Liman who prays…”
Josef silently reflected on the title Zayar had mentioned.
“Do a detailed investigation into this man named Lehman right now.”
“Yes, master.”
Zayar escaped the slaughterhouse under Josef’s orders.
“······This is absolutely ridiculous.”
Josef, who was left alone, turned his head and looked at the corpses of the monsters once again.
I couldn’t handle the sword, but I could see it.
Josef was a descendant of the Bayezid family, which revered martial arts, and there were many outstanding knights around him.
That’s why I was able to recognize it.
“You’re a genius.”
From a crooked strike where even the basics were not properly grasped.
What can be achieved in just one month with the newly engraved sword path is something that only a talent given by heaven can achieve.
The body of the orc that came in yesterday had its eyes wide open as if it still couldn’t believe its own death.
