The small-scale battle between the Kingdom of Israpan and the Empire ended in the Kingdom of Israpan’s victory.
The soldiers of Israpan had not been particularly capable. The Shark Tooth Mercenary Company’s hand had simply been far too powerful.
Less than an hour after the battle began, the dispatched Israpan army had been wiped out. Most of the wandering mercenaries breathed their last two hours after that.
The boy was one of the few mercenaries to survive until the end of the battle.
Aside from the boy, the only unaffiliated mercenaries who had survived were the man he had saved earlier and a handful of mercenaries who looked like hardened veterans.
Considering that most of the other survivors belonged to the Shark Tooth Mercenary Company, it was reasonable to conclude that the wandering mercenaries had effectively been hired as meat shields.
Their role had been to minimize the losses of the mercenary company, a valuable resource.
The boy was enraged to realize that he, too, had been hired for that very reason. But since it was also true that he had failed to surpass the Shark Tooth Mercenary Company’s accomplishments, there was little he could do besides swallow his anger.
"The captain took all the glory again today..."
"Every time I see him, he doesn’t even look human to me."
Behind the boy, who sat before a campfire fuming, passing mercenaries whispered among themselves.
They must have been talking about the captain of the Shark Tooth Mercenary Company—the monster who had torn through the battlefield.
A huge man whose clothes, sky-blue fabric embroidered with images of the sea, had left a strong impression.
His equipment was more extravagant than that of the other mercenaries, so the boy had recognized at a glance that he was the Shark Tooth Mercenary Company’s captain.
Silver armor charging into battle while skillfully wielding two greatswords.
The sight of him driving back enemies with unstoppable force was enough to call him a shark descended upon the earth.
With a single strike, he split the ground. With a punch thrown as though his opponents were an annoyance, an imperial soldier’s head vanished.
The boy guessed that he might be one of those [Blessed by the Gods].
But that thought did not last long, because an unwelcome visitor interrupted his contemplation.
"Hello. This is our first time meeting since the battlefield, right?"
"...Damn it. You were alive?"
The boy grumbled as he glared at the man who had suddenly appeared.
I shouldn’t have saved him back then.
As the boy sighed, regretting his earlier action, the man casually seated himself beside him.
"I’m Porit. Porit... Ropos."
"..."
"Hmm, isn’t it polite to introduce yourself at a time like this?"
The boy looked at the man, who seemed flustered and wore an awkward smile, then showed a troubled expression.
The boy had no name. But introducing himself to someone as a stray dog did not feel right, either.
In the end, the boy decided to admit to Porit that he had no name.
"I don’t have one. A name, I mean."
"...Ah, I see. So that’s your story?"
Porit rubbed his chin as though deep in thought.
His hand rasped faintly over his stubbly chin. Surprisingly, the boy did not dislike the sound.
"You’re a boy, right?"
"...? Obviously."
"Your skin is incredibly smooth for a mercenary, you know? Smooth enough that no one could blame someone for mistaking your sex."
"You’re making fun of me right now, aren’t you?"
After pondering for quite a while, Porit snapped his fingers and gave the boy a name.
It was a name with a sound as gentle as the boy’s skin.
"Ian. How does Ian sound?"
"...Ian?"
"You can call yourself Yan for short, too."
Ian. Yan.
It was not a bad name.
The boy had already accepted being called a stray dog because he liked the name, so there was no reason to reject this one.
There was just one thing that bothered him.
"...But why are you being so nice to me? We’re mercenaries who only met for the first time today."
"Hmm, first, because you’re the benefactor who saved my life."
If there was a first reason, did that mean there was a second?
The boy found that simple, ordinary, universal reason somewhat convincing.
In fact, even among mercenaries, there were plenty of people who made a fuss about repaying a life debt, and the boy had encountered countless such people.
"And second, because you resemble my daughter."
"...?"
"Yes, I am making fun of you for looking like a girl."
"You bastard."
The boy brought his fist down hard on Porit’s head.
Though he struck quite swiftly, Porit pulled his helmet down as if used to this and blocked Ian’s fist.
Ian clutched his fist and whimpered after striking steel with his bare hand.
"Ah, you lunatic! Why did you block it?!"
"Ha ha... Was I supposed to just let you beat me to death?"
Porit chuckled as he watched Ian complain about the pain, as though it were amusing.
Furious at the sight of someone—more precisely, the person responsible—laughing while he was in pain, Ian lunged at Porit again to punch him. At that moment, a small glass bottle flew into Ian’s arms.
Ian had spent long enough as a mercenary that his reaction speed was more than enough to catch the bottle on reflex.
Looking closely, it resembled the one carried by the mercenary Ian had bumped into that morning. If he remembered correctly, it was called a potion.
"It’s called a High Potion. I hear it heals any wound in an instant."
"Why would you give me something like..."
"By the way, that costs 3,000 valis."
"...Damn it."
Ian carefully put the potion away in his bag.
It was a degree of delicacy rarely seen in Ian’s ordinarily slapdash life.
Even Porit, whom he had known for less than an hour, could tell just how cautious Ian was being.
"Ha ha ha! What’s with those catlike movements?"
"Shut up! Damn it, I can’t believe it costs 3,000 valis..."
Stunned by a price more than a hundred times what he had been worth as a boy, Ian treasured the potion in his bag.
Come to think of it, this was also the first time in Ian’s life that he had handled something so expensive.
Ian stared intently at Porit.
Ian was certainly not someone who opened up easily to others, yet this man had approached him so effortlessly and given him a name.
He could not even resist. Whenever he tried to get angry, Porit changed the subject.
With the last traces of his wariness about to fade away, Ian suddenly shouted at Porit.
"W-Why are you giving me something this expensive?! It’s weird!"
"...Well, because you resemble my daughter. Isn’t it only natural that I’d want to look after you?"
"You fucking bastard!"
This time, Ian even drew his sword and charged at Porit.
Porit, startled out of his wits, began to run away as well.
"Hey, let’s talk after you put the sword away, okay? Yan?"
"Shut up! And don’t call me Yan!"
Ordinarily, catching Porit would have been effortless for Ian.
For some reason, though, Ian did not particularly want to put any strength into his legs.
Comments (0)
Please log in to leave a comment. Login or Register