30 - A Certain Adventurer’s Perspective (3)

“Why did things have to end up like this, I wonder…”

After parting with Rena, I had gathered information about the new species of monster, but in Seizeria, I hadn’t obtained a single useful lead.

There was a limit to how much I could keep eating into my savings.

So, it couldn’t be helped that I had been joining other teams as a helper in monster hunts.

By now, I was well used to refusing nighttime invitations, so I paid them no mind.

With the territory still unsettled, there was no way to send serious forces into the Fullretos Great Forest, so for a little over a year they had been sending retired monster-hunters bit by bit—but the results had been poor.

The adventurers’ guild, under pressure for measurable results, had forcibly sent people out, only to lose many skilled veterans.

My team had been one of those.

The result was disbandment, leaving me to chase the new species of monster alone like this.

Because that thing had taken the very first magic sword we had ever obtained together—Zantetsu.

I still clearly remembered how we had acquired that sword.

It had been a fight that taught us firsthand just how troublesome a monster wielding a powerful weapon could be.

And that battle was what had made us into a true team.

I had been moving to take it back, but—

(Sightings not in Seizeria, but in Canaan? Give me a break. Even if it’s not an outright war right now, crossing the border costs a lot of money.)

At present, in the Kingdom of Canaan’s Romhite territory, soldiers were being gathered at the southern frontline town of Lecole.

Since they intended to expand southward and sweep away the monsters around former Imperial cities, Lecole was now crowded with people hungry for work, mercenaries above all.

And by now, I was one of them.

Before I could gather information, I first needed to gather funds, so it couldn’t be helped.

This time’s job was exterminating goblins nesting in Old Carnash Fortress.

According to prior intel, it was almost certain there was a queen, and their numbers were said to reach a thousand.

Carnash Fortress had been taken from Canaan by the Empire during the great war, and they had never managed to reclaim it even after the war ended.

Since the fortress had originally been built for the Empire and Seizeria, Canaan, aiming to develop the south, would surely want to secure it at all costs.

The problem was that, after a long occupation by the Empire, no one knew what the inside was like, even if it looked like just a sturdy fortress from the outside.

Having been burned before at a former Imperial base, I wanted nothing to do with setting foot inside.

So it was a relief that, by virtue of being a magician, I had managed to be excluded from the internal assault.

“To think we’d be laying siege against goblins…”

I muttered while looking at the fortress Canaan had once poured its money and time into.

The walls were solid and thick, ideal for defense, and even after two hundred years, they still stood, now used by the goblins.

Even seasoned mercenaries seemed to be facing such a sight for the first time, and all were troubled by the question of “How do we attack it?”

Bringing it down itself wasn’t that hard.

The problem was casualties.

How to minimize losses and efficiently wipe out the goblins—that was what the mercenaries were pondering as they stared at the fortress.

With that height, even thrown rocks couldn’t be ignored.

With such numbers, arrows were also a serious threat.

The gates were firmly shut, and without a battering ram, the only option was to climb the walls.

(Yeah, casualties were certain. No wonder the mercs were brooding.)

Though we weren’t yet within combat range, I could see from afar the goblins on the walls holding bows.

Pulling my favorite deep-navy witch hat low, I stepped back and brushed twigs and grass off my new dress robe, then leaned against a tree.

It wasn’t that I was tired of walking, but the battle would likely begin tomorrow.

Given the hour, tonight would probably be spent in a standoff.

By then, I hoped the mercs would have found some way forward.

With neither side moving for a while, the surroundings grew noisy.

“Looks like there weren’t any collapsed sections of the outer wall. Since the gate’s solid too, the captain was grumbling that ‘this is gonna be trouble.’”

“For real? Getting hurt against goblins is such a bad look…”

That was what I overheard while listening to the mercenaries.

I sighed—groups led by queens really were a pain.

I kept my ears open for useful intel, when a mercenary walked up to me.

“Hey, miss. How much for a night?”

“There’s a queen waiting inside that fortress. Why don’t you go in there and do her?”

I brushed him off, eyes on my chest and all, while scanning for a mercenary company I might actually team up with.

I did at least pride myself on being a skilled magician.

If I was going to be based in Lecole for a while, I wanted to find a company I could work with regularly.

Or better yet, one that suited my own goals.

Time passed.

Around dusk, a knight in full regalia was shouting at the mercenary leaders he’d gathered, but, likely ignored, he ranted and raved uselessly.

Looking for somewhere quieter, I walked a bit, found a convenient spot, and used the rope from my pack and my leather coat to make an improvised hammock, then lay down.

I stabbed a decorated stake into the ground to look like a magic item, sketched some meaningless magic circles—enough that only an idiot would dare approach.

Even if someone did attack, I had rigged the hammock to collapse. As long as I woke up, with so many people around, I could deal with anything.

Whatever the case, tomorrow was when it all began.

I closed my eyes to rest for it.

The attack that began at dawn was still ongoing by noon, with the fortress yet to fall.

The first casualties from hurled rocks had dulled momentum, no doubt.

Now archers and magicians strained to clear the goblins off the outer walls.

They had decided to spread their attacks to chip away at numbers gradually, rather than concentrate firepower, taking more time but reducing losses.

The mercenaries, unwilling to lose people to goblins, seemed fine with it, though the knights were irritated by the cautious pace.

They were apparently true knights sent by the lord, grumbling endlessly about the mercenary methods they disliked.

After my nth spell knocked down a cluster of goblins, my mana ran dry and I pulled back.

The goblins seemed to have caught on too, scattering their archers, which reduced the numbers we could take down at once and dragged things out.

“I’d say we’ve cut them down by 300… but thanks to those Imperial building materials they’re using as cover, arrows aren’t doing the trick anymore. On top of that, they’re firing our arrows back at us, causing injuries.”

“Should we pull back the archers?”

“No, stick with crossbows only. Those can’t be reused against us.”

With the main mercenary captains adjusting strategy as needed, deaths so far had been limited to three.

There were more wounded, but all light injuries, nothing impairing combat.

“Mana’s out. I’m pulling back.”

“Got it.”

One captain replied.

The knight overseers, already irritated with the rapid turnover of exhausted magicians, now glared at me too, eyes dripping with disdain before quickly shifting lower—just as unpleasant.

If all the magicians had just torched the place at once, it would have been over quickly, but the knights’ entourage had refused absolutely, wanting the fortress “reusable.”

And yet they did nothing but complain. Knights really did have easy jobs.

As I rested on a hastily made bench, the situation shifted.

The goblins’ arrows had finally run out, to the point they were just grabbing crossbow bolts and throwing them.

At last, it was time for the mercenaries to shine.

Ladders went up, spells drove off the goblins, and one after another, mercenaries gained the wall.

Once the wall was secured, the rest was swift.

By the time the gates opened and we advanced inside, only the queen and her guards remained.

Her guards fell quickly, and the giant queen had her legs smashed by a greatsword-wielding mercenary before being riddled with arrows.

“Is it over?”

By the time I muttered that, victory cheers were rising.

The final tally: 5 dead, 65 wounded.

Deaths had risen because one idiot fell from the wall and another got himself killed rushing the queen for glory.

Fools chasing merit always ended the same.

While mercenaries busied themselves with withdrawal prep, I quickly packed my solo gear.

Being alone, there was little to do, and I finished fast.

As I waited for the companies to finish, the greatsword wielder who had crippled the queen approached me.

“Hey, nice work out there.”

He raised a hand with a grin, and I sighed,

“Not again.”

“Relax, it’s business.”

As he neared, I fixed him with a look that said, “Get to the point.”

“Truth is, we’re after bigger prey. Heard the news? A new species of monster’s been spotted around here lately.”

I hadn’t expected that, and a flicker of surprise escaped me. He seemed to take it as shock at the news itself.

“Oh? Interesting. Tell me more.”

“Glad you’re interested. But the details depend on whether you’ll take the job—ah, well, it’s not official yet. But with a new species discovered, threat level high, it’s bound to be a joint extermination. So, how about joining our company? To be blunt, we’re short on magicians.”

“One question first… what exactly do you mean by ‘short’? If you said ‘few,’ that’s one thing. But ‘short’ makes it sound like you already know the enemy’s strength.”

The man scratched his stubbled chin with a sheepish “Ahh.”

There had been rumors of mercenary companies fighting it—perhaps this was one of them.

“Well, fine. I’ll take the job—on two conditions.”

“Depends on the conditions.”

He said, rubbing his chin but nodding.

From his reaction, the shortage of magicians might be dire.

“First, of course, is money. I’ve got a reputation, so you’ll pay accordingly. And the instant payment stops, I’m out. Second—”

Naturally, he made a face at the money part. But mercenaries were mercenaries.

“When we kill the new species, I get to take one thing of my choice.”

“One thing?”

“Yes. A body part, a possession, anything.”

“Possession?”

I cursed myself inwardly for slipping.

“I do know a little about it. It’s smart, isn’t it? Then it wouldn’t be strange if it carried something. Like, say… a magic item.”

The man looked thoughtful, as if something clicked.

That made it all the likelier his company had indeed encountered it.

“Oh, right. If you agree to that second condition, I’ll cut you some slack on the first.”

“Not bad, then…”

“Oh, one more thing. Before your lot found it, the Seizeria adventurers’ guild already had a report of the new species.”

The man’s head jerked up.

“I see… so it was your company that met it in Canaan.”

He covered his face in a clear gesture of “damn it.”

“You… what’s your angle?”

“Who knows. All I can say is—I still see myself as a ‘hunter.’”

With that, the negotiations paused.

Apparently, he’d need to discuss hiring me with his company.

And that man turned out to be the captain of Dawn’s Battlefield: Orland.

By the look of him, he wasn’t bad.

His weapon was top-tier too, so he was promising.

Later, when I returned to Lecole, a formal offer from Dawn’s Battlefield awaited me.

I had no intention of joining a company, so I gently refused.

In the end, I was hired, though negotiations over the fee dragged on.

I thought I’d done well, but their negotiator, a man named Edward, had gotten the better of me at the very end.

“Oh, and Miss Diera—just to be clear, our company didn’t merely ‘encounter’ the new species. We fought it. You can probably guess, but it was a crushing defeat. We’re counting on your talents.”

Changing the contract terms had been impossible.

So I added a new goal: one day to land a punch on that smooth-talking pretty boy’s face.

In the meantime, I earned money and quietly gathered information in Lecole.