16 A Certain Mercenary’s Perspective (1)

“Goblins, you say?”

The city of Lecole, base of the mercenary company Dawn’s Battlefield.

Situated on the eastern side among the cities bordering the Fullretos Great Forest, it was close to the “Monster Beast Nest”–like forest, where conflicts with Seizeria over the border were likely to occur. As such, it’s a comfortable city for mercenaries who never lacked for work.

I had been summoned at the request of its lord, but what was the client thinking, presenting a “goblin extermination” job to a mercenary company with 120 members?

I guessed the fact that I couldn’t hide my displeasure at such an unwelcome job showed I still had a ways to go.

“Yeah. The job I want you to do is to wipe out the goblins infesting the ruins of the old Imperial town of Rukudil.”

The one explaining the details was “Arngeil,” a former highly skilled mercenary and the current guild master of the mercenary guild.

Though said to be nearly sixty, he still worked energetically for his age.

With that career, after retiring from active duty, he now sat in the guild branch office dealing with tough-looking types.

People whispered, “He could still fight,” and I was one of those who agreed.

However, even hearing it directly from this man, “Dawn” taking on goblin extermination was a bit of a blow to our reputation.

Such small fry weren’t the kind of job a big outfit like ours should take.

“There are a lot of them. There’s probably a colony not too far from here. A large number of them have spilled out from there. Of those who can move right now, your company is about the only one that can handle those numbers.”

Perhaps sensing my dissatisfaction and unease, he explained the circumstances — that there were no other options besides us.

“We can’t mobilize the knights. Seizeria has started expanding its territory to pen us in. The north still needs time to recover from dragon damage. In short, we’re short-handed right now.”

“I can’t complain about there being plenty of work.”

“You’ve increased your members, haven’t you? Then take this as an opportunity to train them.”

I stroked my chin thoughtfully with a “hmm.”

I didn’t give an answer right away.

I might accept, but not unless they offered proper terms.

Naturally, Arngeil understood that much, which was why he sighed.

“Orland. Goblins are weak but can’t be left alone. There are at least 300. Right now, in this city, there’s no one but Dawn’s Battlefield I can entrust with this.”

After taking my time, I exhaled deeply and reluctantly said,

“Fine, I’ll do it.”

For the sake of equipping the rookies, I’d make sure to squeeze the pay up a bit.

After discussing the terms for a while, we signed the contract.

At one point I got scolded — “At least clean yourself up when you come to meetings like this” — to which I replied as always, “I’m a mercenary,” and left it at that.

After our usual back-and-forth, I left the guild and headed for our base.

“Got a job.”

The moment I got back, my short statement silenced the rowdy bunch and drew all eyes to me.

“Loyd, Harvey, this time it’s goblin extermination. We’ll focus on giving the younger ones experience. Pick the team.”

At my order, the two veterans stood up, made fists with their symbol-marked hands, and struck their chests once.

“How many do we take?”

“Let’s see… adjust it to fifty.”

I dumped all the fine-tuning on the two of them and headed to my usual blacksmith to have my partner — the greatsword known as “Giant-Killer” — checked.

Afterward I stopped by the armor shop, adjusted my greaves, looked at a new gauntlet, and since it was a good time, grabbed a meal before heading back to base, where fifty people assigned to this job were already gathered.

Giving them a once-over, I noticed a woman clearly unsuited for this mission’s conditions.

“Annie, there’s a lot of them this time. Put some armor on.”

“No way. Don’t butt into how I fight.”

Annie, wearing nothing but hot pants and cloth wrapped around her chest, leaned back in her chair with her feet on the table, talking back.

I could only smile wryly at the usual exchange.

She’s always like this, but she’s skilled, so I couldn’t say anything.

She’s bad for the young guys’ concentration, but she spent her earnings in town, so I didn’t press the issue.

A mercenary wasn’t supposed to hoard money, anyway.

At any rate, since everyone was here, I just said what needed saying.

“We leave tomorrow morning. Everyone, don’t slack off on preparations!”

They all shouted “Yes, sir!” in unison.

Even if they’re rookies, they’d been thoroughly trained.

Don’t you dare let goblins of all things kill you.

I was confident we could handle this, and realistically there shouldn’t be any problems.

Even if there were a lot, they’re just goblins.

Even surrounded, we could break through quickly — you had to accept a bit of disadvantage, or it’s not even training.

If someone couldn’t easily kill goblins after all that training, they’ve got no future.

I kept checking the rookies’ movements, giving orders, cutting down the numbers while keeping casualties low.

We must have taken out a hundred, but they just kept coming.

That’s the trouble with old Imperial ruins.

“That’s too many for a group without a leader.”

“They’re probably goblins spilling out from multiple colonies and joining up.”

If what Loyd beside me said was true, that meant “multiple colonies not far from each other.”

I stuck out my tongue in distaste.

Thinking about the reinforcements still to come and the troublesome follow-up job we’d probably get made me grimace.

The extermination proceeded smoothly enough, until, as expected, the goblins started to flee.

When a hole opened in our encirclement, I sent the rookies charging in to widen it, and the rout began.

“Kazetta! It’s a wipeout mission. Use magic to find the ones hiding!”

I stuck close to protect Kazetta while she chanted, giving precise orders and starting the pursuit.

I formed a squad to go ahead and cut off escape routes. Just as we were about to do that, her chanting ended and the spell went off.

Something big was hiding near a collapsed building.

“It’s a wipeout mission. Whatever it is, there’s no reason to let it go.”

I ordered Kazetta to use more magic to flush it out.

Flames spread wide, covering all the hiding spots, until a monster emerged, sweeping the fire aside with its arm.

A humanoid-like monster with gray skin, a long tail, bipedal stance, and a body with jagged protrusions I’d never seen before.

“A new species?”

No one reacted to my mutter.

Meaning, no one here had seen it before.

Should I have brought Alitta or Edward?

Well, if we just killed it, it was a small matter.

I left the rookies and their trainers to chase the goblins and took the rest to take down the new species.

I pointed Giant-Killer at the monster looking down from a height, swung it up and down, provoking it to come at me.

The new species seemed hesitant for a moment, then leapt from the crumbling building to land in the plaza and came straight for me — then stopped in the center.

When our members surrounded it, it smiled as if expecting that.

“You’re looking down on us, huh?”

It must have been watching us fight.

If it did this even after watching, it’s a clear provocation.

(Fine. I’ll play along!)

I charged in first.

A battle that barely deserved the name began.

“What the hell is this thing?”

Everyone must have thought that.

Arrows didn’t pierce, swords chipped, spears broke.

I pulled back anyone without high-grade weapons, leaving only veterans to engage.

Still no real damage — while on our side, one dead and several too injured to fight.

(This is bad.)

The battle was going badly.

Only Loyd and I had weapons that could hurt its shell-like armor.

Magic was smashed by its fists and didn’t even make it flinch on a direct hit — totally lacking in power, so I had them stop.

Our only hopes were my Giant-Killer, Loyd’s warhammer, and Annie’s magic sword.

I had to keep its attention on me or nothing would happen.

I kept attacking, but nearly every strike was deflected by its punches.

It was clearly targeting weapon destruction — meaning it saw my sword as the biggest threat.

But there’s a reason Giant-Killer has such a grand nickname.

If it were that easy to break, it wouldn’t have lasted on my battlefield.

We needed to land a blow from me or Loyd, but with its high alert on me and the slowness of a heavy warhammer, we couldn’t connect.

The mood was shifting to “there’s no way to break the situation.”

That’s when she took a gamble.

“Haaaah!”

Annie charged in from behind, crossbow in hand.

Completely ignoring my orders.

“Annie!”

The words “Fall back!” didn’t follow.

With no other way to break the deadlock, I hesitated to stop her.

But the situation moved on without caring about my hesitation.

Its tail lashed out at Annie, who was in front — and she slid under it.

As she got under its side, she thrust her crossbow toward its face.

The bolt — was caught between its teeth.

Probably not by accident.

It had caught a point-blank bolt in its teeth.

The astonished Annie was grabbed and lifted.

I stepped forward to rescue her — and met her eyes.

She was smiling.

She made one attempt to break free, then gave up, pulled a small vial from her jacket, and poured it onto the fingers holding her.

In the next instant, leaving her jacket and chest wrap behind, she slipped free.

The dropped crossbow hit the ground — the signal for Loyd, Harvey, and me to move.

Annie drew her magic sword, and we attacked from all sides at once.

One of us was already in range, and it saw Loyd and me as the main threats — who to block, who to take the hit from?

As expected, it prioritized blocking me.

It was a shame Harvey got swept away by its tail, but with my and Loyd’s attacks blocked, Annie’s magic sword connected.

Everyone expected it to work.

I expected it to work.

But there was no wound on its body.

Feeling the lack of effect, Annie should have just run past — but she turned back.

I forced my stance into position to try to match her next strike.

When I raised my sword, its hand was already reaching for her.

Too late — or so I thought.

But instead, it tapped her on the head and tossed her clothes at her.

When we all froze at the strange act, it pointed at me.

I understood.

“I’m the one you want. Everyone fall back.”

Looking back, it had been wary of only me from the start.

It had probably been testing us this whole time.

Looks like I’m the only one who passed its standards.

‘I can live with it if it’s just me,’ I thought — but…

“Don’t be stupid! You think you can win alone?”

One idiot stating the obvious.

(I know better than anyone that I can’t beat it.)

We had chances… or so I thought.

It crushed them all.

I knew all too well the gap in our strength.

“Don’t worry. When I get back, I’ll buy you the best drink.”

I reached out, ruffled Annie’s hair as she pressed up to me, then took a step back from the monster.

“Put some clothes on,” I said. “Jerk,” she shot back.

Her voice was shaking.

She kept her face down to hide it.

(Sorry.)

I apologized silently, turned to face the monster, and looked up at the sky, thinking back.

Not bad — yeah, not a bad life.

From a brat who couldn’t even swing a sword properly to making it this far.

I exhaled deeply to reset my resolve.

Never thought a monster would humor my wishes… I always thought intelligent beasts were nothing but trouble, but at times like this, they’re awfully convenient.

“Sorry to keep you waiting.”

I smiled at the monster and called out — it met my gaze.

I had regrets.

But if I could keep them alive, entrust things to them, that was enough.

Not that I planned to go down for free.

I carried the pride of Dawn on my back.

Even if I died, I’d land a blow.

(Don’t defend. Don’t think about surviving. Assume this strike will kill you.)

I raised Giant-Killer high.

Aim for a mutual kill — nothing else mattered.

Sensing my intent, it took a stance for the first time.

Lowering itself, hands to the ground, legs back.

It would probably rush in to crush me.

If I could match the timing, I’d… no, I would land the strike.

(Don’t think about winning. Focus only on driving in this blow.)

We stared each other down.

I kept my stance, my eyes locked, ready for it to make the first move.

Holding this position was nothing.

As my comrades held their breath, it finally moved.

Its drawn-back right leg sank.

Here it comes — I stepped forward to bring my sword down… or so I thought.

It charged, and I moved to meet it.

I thought I had perfectly matched its movement.

But it sped up even more.

It had never shown its full speed until now.

Before I could swing Giant-Killer down, it grabbed my hand.

My life-or-death strike was stopped before it could be swung.

My feet left the ground as it lifted me. I yanked my hand free and drew my dagger.

But my right-hand fingers were bent in all the wrong directions, unable to grip.

The dropped dagger hit the ground, and the new species’ face loomed.

(So this is it…)

For my last act, I looked over all the members of Dawn’s Battlefield.

That was all the time I had.

“Live.”

That was my last order.

Amid cries of “Captain!” I clearly heard one voice call my name.

I apologized in my heart once more, then quietly closed my eyes.