17 A Certain Mercenary’s Perspective (2)

I didn’t understand the situation.

I was alive.

That’s good.

But why was the monster that tried to eat me… vomiting?

It was gagging and struggling to cough up whatever it had swallowed, and the rest of us could only stare in stunned confusion.

A few people looked at me as if to say, “What did you do?” but I was the one who wanted to ask that — I was the one drenched in its saliva from head to toe.

To put it simply, I survived, and the new species of monster ran away.

There was no way to stop such a massive creature’s retreat, so all we could do was watch it stagger off.

Then, all eyes turned to one place.

To me — the guy who’d been bitten on the head and left covered in monster spit.

No one spoke… no, no one could speak.

I sat silently on the ground.

Everyone shared the same question — “What happened?” — but more than a few seemed to think I had done something.

But since I hadn’t done anything, there was nothing I could say.

Honestly, this should have been the scene of my death — I thought I had died.

I didn’t know the cause, but since I survived, there’s nothing to be done about it.

As time passed and everyone cooled down, the awkwardness in the air became more and more palpable.

We were all waiting for someone to break the silence, and the one who finally raised a hand was the last person I expected.

“Um… Captain. This is… really hard to say, but…”

Kazetta hesitated, but I silently jerked my chin for her to “spit it out.”

“Captain, when was the last time you washed your body… no, your head?”

“…Can’t remember. Not in the last three years, far as I recall.”

My answer silenced everyone.

They must have realized — or rather, decided — that this was why that monster reacted the way it did.

“…Hey, am I really that smelly?”

Unable to bear the silence, I asked — and the members quietly averted their eyes.

Back in the city of Lecole, I was scrubbed down in silence, just like on the way home.

They focused especially on my saliva-covered head, dumping water on me so thoroughly I could barely breathe.

I had no right to refuse. Whoever said it first, it began with “We’ve been wanting to say something about the captain’s smell for a long time,” and turned into an open trial condemning my body odor.

They said things like “It makes my eyes sting” and “It’s kind of sour” without holding back.

Apparently, nearly the whole company had complaints about my smell, and they seized the chance to unload them.

I endured the verbal abuse in silence.

Because, you see… about half of them were in tears.

I’d thought I was playing it cool with a “Nothing I can say to that,” but later someone came back with, “No, it’s because you smell, Captain.”

Fine. I would remember this for training.

Once I was scrubbed clean, I went to the guild to report.

Arngeil stared at me with a surprised look, but when I reported the goblin extermination and the possibility of multiple colonies based on the numbers, he grimaced as if it was what he expected.

“There’s one more piece of bad news.”

Arngeil pressed his fingers to his brow.

Short on manpower already, now faced with multiple goblin colonies — and this would be the cherry on top. I could almost sympathize.

“We discovered a new species of monster.”

From the way he held his head, I could tell he’d guessed the rest.

“As you can guess, we got utterly crushed. One-on-one isn’t even a fight.”

I showed him my fingers wrapped in bandages.

Seven were broken, for the record.

In hindsight, I should’ve bought those new gauntlets… though even if they’d been metal, the result would’ve been the same.

The injury told the story without words, but it still didn’t convey how dangerous that thing was.

“Put simply — arrows don’t pierce it. Swords don’t work. Spears break. Magic barely affects it. I couldn’t land a single hit with Giant-Killer.”

“…What the hell is it?”

“About the size of an ogre, gray all over, with a tail — humanoid-ish. Oh, and it stopped Loyd’s warhammer one-handed. Stronger than an ogre, faster, smarter. It focused on me from the start, crushed me, and left. One of ours dead, many injured.”

“What happened?”

“While wiping out goblins, we found ‘something’ hiding with magic, flushed it out, and I lured it in.”

When I added, “And lost completely,” Arngeil let out an especially deep sigh.

“A new species of monster you can’t hunt… no, that can swat you aside like nothing.”

Blunt, but true, so I just said, “Yeah.”

“How do we deal with it?”

“I’d like to know that myself. At the very least, we’d need a top-grade magic sword and a high-level mage to even start.”

I left out the part about Annie’s magic sword not leaving a scratch.

I might be in the guild, but I’m not obligated to report everything.

There’s duty, sure — but this is beyond that.

“What do you think we should do?”

“Don’t ask me.”

I brushed him off, and he sighed again.

“If the knights ran into that thing… how would it go?”

“They’d get wiped out. Best case, the monster walks away almost unscathed. Metal armor’s worthless, and ordinary swords won’t even scratch it.”

Another sigh.

He was probably thinking through all the angles, but I knew better than anyone that this wasn’t an enemy you came up with a quick solution for.

“You’re telling me to report this?”

When he complained, I said,

“That’s your job, isn’t it?”

“From now on, you’re going to be involved in dealing with this new species. You can help explain it to the lord and the knights.”

“Whoa, whoa, I’m still not allowed in the lord’s manor, you know?”

He tried to rope me in, but unfortunately for him, our company can’t enter the manor.

“That problem’s basically solved. The reason Dawn’s Battlefield couldn’t enter wasn’t a matter of skill, record, or trust — it’s because you’re filthy.”

Arngeil’s words left me momentarily stunned.

For a mercenary company, skill, record, and trust are everything.

Proof of that was being able to deal directly with nobility.

I’d always thought we couldn’t deal directly with the lord because we weren’t good enough.

“Listen — the days when you could rely on skill alone were back when the world was one big battlefield. When the captain, the ‘face’ of a mercenary company, looks no better than a roadside bandit, it’s a matter of dignity. Get that through your head.”

After a light scolding from the guild master, I returned to base — where a post-job drinking party awaited.

Such parties are almost always held, under the unspoken agreement that “even if someone dies, we’ll be able to laugh tomorrow.”

Even with my fingers broken, making it hard to hold a cup, I’d planned to join in.

But then—

“Tonight’s on the Captain! Drink up without mercy!” Annie called out, and the members raised their cups.

“Wait, I said I’d buy you a drink, not everyone—”

“You’ll pay, right?”

Annie cut me off, eyes fixed.

“I honestly thought you were gonna die. How are you alive… huh? After surviving that, don’t you have something to say to me? Huh?”

Whether from drink or not, she grabbed my collar and shook me hard.

From what I heard, she’d been drinking non-stop since we got back.

(Come to think of it, she wasn’t around when they washed me.)

So she’d been drinking the whole time… I couldn’t help but look exasperated.

While she clung to me, I recounted my conversation with the guild master to the core members, drinking from my cup with both hands.

In the end, my body odor came up again — but since it might have saved my life, I figured it was fine.

Apparently, though, there had been incidents at various shops, and they took this opportunity to demand I change my lifestyle.

Not the kind of talk you expected over drinks, but it seemed serious enough that I could only nod.

Anyway, before everyone passed out, there was something I had to say.

“Listen up — our immediate goal is that ‘new species.’”

The members stopped and listened.

Not a face among them looked like they’d been drinking.

“No matter that we weren’t at full strength, a loss is a loss. Conveniently — or maybe not — the lord’s aim of expanding territory matches with our need to deal with it, so we’ve been roped into the job. We may end up working alongside other mercenary companies, maybe even the knights. But others won’t believe our report and will get themselves hurt like we did.”

I took a deep breath.

“We’re not gonna end it on a loss! Next time, we’re taking it on with our full elite! We’ll finish it!”

My declaration set the members roaring.

One was already passed out, but I’d fill him in later.

The party went on late into the night.

Our usual daily life had returned.

(That thing’s bound to have a huge bounty on its head.)

I’d held back details to raise its threat rating — other companies would have to take the hit.

Once they learned its strength and the damage rose, the reward would only climb higher.

And the ones to claim it would be us — Dawn’s Battlefield.