Chapter – 34
After leaving the outer wall of the Marquis Raymond’s territory and being ambushed for the first time in the slums, Piranceba’s party was attacked nearly every day.
Shooong!
Piranceba always took the lead against the attacks of the dark wizard Diviner, fighting the monsters he controlled or the brainwashed humans. Seeing him constantly taking charge, even the mercenaries who initially didn’t like Piranceba were genuinely impressed and followed him sincerely.
“Keuheuk!”
Piranceba was only young in age, but his judgment and actions were like those of a veteran.
“How long have you known Piranceba?”
“About a year.”
When Javes asked a mercenary who was friendly with Piranceba, he mentioned a year. Javes thought for a moment and then nodded.
“What’s on your mind?”
“The kid plays in different waters, that’s all.”
The mercenaries guarding the wagon around them understood Javes’s words.
“Piranceba is impressive, but he’s still young. The things he does are just so cute.”
Another mercenary, Lutein, looked at Piranceba fighting and smiled faintly.
The monsters that attacked the wagon were all dealt with by Piranceba along with the mercenaries Giltmin, Lumen, and Asoman.
“We must hurry and leave this place.”
At Piranceba’s words, Javes moved the wagon. The mercenaries moved with the wagon, and those who fought the monsters, including Piranceba, rested in comfortable positions on the wagon as it moved.
It was also a consideration for those who had fought the monsters on behalf of the others.
“How old is he this year?”
“Sixteen.”
“Sixteen? Looking at his face, it seems he’s faced the years head-on.”
No one saw Piranceba as sixteen due to his robust build.
“There’s no battlefield in the Empire, so he wouldn’t have been a war mercenary. Did he stay in some kingdom and then come here?”
Javes asked as if he knew Piranceba well.
“I did mercenary work in the Duchy of Belforden.”
“I had a rough guess. Are the Belforden Duke’s side and the Lupoden Grand Duke’s Rumani tribe still fighting there?”
“Continuously. Since the Lupoden Grand Duke believes the throne was stolen from him, the war in the Belforden Duchy probably won’t end unless the Grand Duke dies.”
“Then other kingdoms will try to use that to keep the war going.”
“Yes. But when I left, the Rumina tribe was defeated. It will be quiet for a while.”
Javes chuckled at Piranceba’s words.
“The kid talks as if he’s seen the future of the Belforden Duchy?”
“Do you have to see it? Just by looking at how things are progressing and the flow of the situation, you can tell.”
“Then why didn’t you stay there longer?”
“I intended to, but the mercenaries’ territorialism was too severe. And since my father’s name was cleared, I didn’t see the need to suffer like that in another country.”
“So you returned to the Empire? Then you should be by your father’s side. Why are you doing mercenary work?”
“Well, I suffered in another country’s war, so I thought I’d come and suck some honey, but I got bored just staying still.”
“Hahaha. So you’re wandering around doing mercenary work? Someone like you could receive excellent education at an academy.”
What one gained from mercenary life and what one gained from life at an academy were worlds apart.
“That’s true, but at an academy, there’s no chance to learn something while risking your life. And if I entered an academy now, I’d have to call kids younger than me ‘senior,’ which I don’t think I could do.”
“You really are an odd one.”
“I think so too. I tried to fix it, but it’s a habit so ingrained I can’t help it.”
“Well, do as you please. But mercenary life is rough. The average age of mercenaries is 28. It’s a dangerous profession to that extent.”
“I know. But I’m confident I can live a bit longer than that.”
“Hoho, I see. I’ll make you some splendid Staccato leather armor so you can live a bit longer.”
“Thank you. And this sword is really great too.”
Piranceba looked at the blade Javes had given him.
“It is good. However, having an edge on only one side means it’s specialized for slashing, so there are limits to using it on the battlefield. It would be useless against knights in plate or chainmail armor.”
“That’s true, but if I master mana, it’s a problem easily solved. Also, knights being fully armed is uncommon unless it’s a battlefield, so I really like it.”
*Item: Javes’s Blade.
Description: A blade forged by Javes with all his might, using adamantium, the hardest and lightest mineral on earth. However, no one paid it any attention, so it had not found an owner until now.
Attack Power: 200
Defense Power: 100
Durability: 500/500
Options:
Magic Use: Attack Power increased by 100%.
Physical Attack Power increased by 20%.
*A name can be engraved on the blade.
*Engraved equipment grants a 10% attack power increase and option effects only to the one who engraved it. If used by another, it becomes like ordinary equipment.
Piranceba was satisfied looking at the performance of the blade Javes gave him.
He knew that engraving it would further increase the blade’s performance but hadn’t given it a name yet.
“Then, please give this to me. I’ll use it.”
He thought he was borrowing it since he didn’t yet have Javes’s permission to take it.
“It will be more inconvenient than a regular sword.”
“Except for thrusting, using it isn’t much different from a regular sword anyway.”
“Then let’s consider your fee for this job covered by that.”
Piranceba smiled broadly.
“Thank you. I’ll use it well.”
Piranceba was happy to have obtained Javes’s blade.
‘From now on, you are Bisang (Soaring).’
—The name of Javes’s Blade is engraved as Bisang (Soaring).
—The attack power of the engraved equipment increases by 10%.
A system notification sounded in Piranceba’s head.
“Thank you very much for the wonderful weapon, Sir Javes.”
“Hoho, do you like it that much?”
“Yes. It fits me perfectly, like a soulmate.”
Watching the delighted Piranceba, Javes smiled.
“Seeing how happy you are with just a sword, it’s hard to think of you as a wizard.”
Piranceba smiled at Javes and said.
“Actually, no one knows. I use magic in a very limited way.”
“Like Mana Feeling?”
“Yes. I’m trying my best to overcome the weaknesses of a wizard.”
“The weaknesses of a wizard… Seeing you fight, it seems you’ve overcome them.”
“I still have a long way to go. I need to be able to fight for at least three days and nights straight.”
“Without resting for three days?”
“Yes.”
“Hohoho, even knights might not be able to do that.”
“They could. It’s just that such situations are rare, so they don’t get to experience it.”
The dark wizard Diviner grew impatient, unable to seize Javes’s wagon heading to the Duchy of Durand.
Whenever he tried to use magic, one person would check him with arrows, preventing him from using magic properly, so he couldn’t do anything.
“How on earth do they know my presence and manage to check me?”
Judging by his physical movements, he clearly wasn’t a wizard. A wizard wouldn’t be able to engage in such intense combat wielding a sword. He was undoubtedly a mercenary trained in swordsmanship, yet he uncannily knew whenever Diviner was about to use magic.
“There’s no trace of spirits around, so he’s not a spirit user. How is he reading the flow of mana?”
The dark wizard narrowed his eyes slightly.
“If he were a Sword Master, he wouldn’t be working as a mercenary.”
For a sword user to read the mana flow phenomenon that occurs when he uses magic, he would need to be at least a Sword Master.
But a man who looked under twenty couldn’t possibly have reached the level of Sword Master, making it all the more infuriating and maddening.
“I boasted to Baron Norton not to worry. What a disgrace this is.”
Diviner felt that if things continued like this, Javes’s weapons would be delivered to Duke Durand, so he needed to devise a plan quickly.
“The next territory is the Ruth territory. Even if it involves some risk, I must mobilize the territory’s knights to deal with him.”
Placing a brainwashing spell on a knight required extreme caution.
Most knights were mana users, meaning they held mana within their bodies, so they instinctively repelled external, harmful mana influences.
“If I take the knights’ families hostage one by one and subdue each knight, it might be possible.”
He thought that no matter how strong the young man who blocked his magic was, he couldn’t possibly stand against knights.
When he fought the knights, if Diviner used his magic to kill the other mercenaries, the young man would surely get excited and run wild. An excited opponent would be easily killed by the knights.
“After that, we move the wagon carrying the weapons to the Aollaid Mountains, then kill the knights and contact Baron Norton.”
Diviner reviewed the plan he had devised once more, confirmed there were no issues, and headed for the Ruth territory.
“Piranceba, we’ll handle it. You should rest a bit.”
When the sun set, they decided to camp and began preparations.
As the representative of the mercenaries, Piranceba could have claimed his rights and relaxed, but given his young age, he busied himself with various tasks. Seeing this, the mercenaries told him to rest.
“Uncle Lutein’s cooking really isn’t tasty. I’d rather cook myself; it tastes better. So I’ll just make the food. Hurry up and prepare other things.”
Piranceba gathered various ingredients from what the mercenaries had brought individually to cook.
He dug a hole somewhat deep in the ground, placed firewood inside, and lit a fire.
Digging a hole and lighting a fire inside prevented embers from being blown by the wind and spreading, thus averting wildfires. Also, the fire wouldn’t be affected by the wind, allowing him to use high heat efficiently.
Piranceba set up a tripod over it, hung a pot, and heated it over the fire.
He stir-fried the prepared meat. Even if the meat stuck to the pot, he knew that adding water and boiling it would make the stuck meat come off.
Using the oil from the meat, he stir-fried vegetables together, then added water and seasoned it.
He added appropriate spices and salt to adjust the flavor. Once the cooking was done, a decent stew was complete.
“Smells good.”
The mercenaries smelled the stew simmering and gathered.
“Don’t drool. Go finish up and come back.”
When Piranceba scolded the mercenaries, their lips jutted out.
Watching this, a smile formed on Javes’s lips.
For the forge, hiring mercenaries to transport weapons was a weekly occurrence.
Every time mercenaries were hired for transport, such a bright atmosphere was rare.
“Piranceba has a magnetic personality.”
Being able to maintain such a bright atmosphere while being attacked daily was possible only because a trust, called faith, had formed among the mercenaries.
Javes believed the main subject of that trust was Piranceba.
“Well, even I think he’s a bit peculiar.”
Javes ate the food he had prepared and took a sip of beer.
The son of a noble with the high title of Count becoming a mercenary was itself a bit detached from the world.
Most nobles receive systematic elite education at academies, naturally seeking to enjoy the rights befitting nobility. Piranceba discarded such rights, choosing the rough life of a mercenary while living brightly, clearly different from ordinary people.
“Has he found something while living as a mercenary, he who is called a genius? Hmm, come to think of it, when Piranceba uses magic, it’s stealthy and quiet, unlike other wizards.”
Piranceba’s magic lacked incantations and the mana flow phenomenon.
“Sometimes I even mistakenly think he might be a dragon, not human.”
Humans think all dragons are dead and believe so, but in reality, many dragons live on the continent.
Among those dragons, some live in their lairs, while others, in what they call their amusement, mingle with humans in the form of other races and meddle in human affairs.
The magic those dragons use, Dragon Speech Magic, is similar to the magic Piranceba uses now, making one sometimes mistakenly think he might be a dragon.
“For a human to use Dragon Speech Magic, a dragon’s magic, is abnormal in itself.”
