warm welcome.
warm welcome.
“What! What! When! When! It’s coming! It’s coming!”
The purple-haired woman ran frantically around, chattering loudly. The man wiped his face and let out a deep sigh.
“Now I’m driving myself crazy with curiosity. You’re really coming here, right? At least before I go completely insane from hearing that whining.”
A woman wearing a black robe buried herself in a chair and nodded.
“It will arrive soon. I’m sure it’s because I’m checking the traffic line periodically.”
“That! That! Really! Really! Really!”
The woman sitting in the chair said, naturally pushing her purple hair out of the blue.
“Oh, since it’s real, can you go over there and play alone? I have to rest for a while and go get ready again?”
“Me too! I’m working! I’m working! You’re not the only one working! But you’re really coming, right? Here at ‘Eradico’!”
“It’s true that you’re coming to ‘Eradico’. Why can’t you trust people so much?”
“Believe it! Totally believe it!”
The purple-haired woman said with sparkling eyes that matched her own hair color.
“By the way! If! If you don’t come here, you’ll die! I’ll beat you up and kill you!”
***
After thoroughly washing my body with the water prepared by the owner for free, I came down to the first floor and Dakia was asking Sajita about various things. Even while eating, Sagitta was always politely answering Dakia’s questions.
I sat down next to Dacia and ordered a meal. Come to think of it, this was my first meal because I had run wild from the early morning wind on an empty stomach.
After I came down to the first floor, Dakia stared at me.
“Do you have any unwashed blood?”
“No. You washed it very well.”
There was a thorn in his voice. I had a rough idea of what made her horny, but I decided to settle my curiosity first.
“Is that why the princess decided to hire this mercenary who is good at fighting?”
“Yes. How did we get a good agreement on the remuneration?”
very short answer. Dacia, I have been constantly appealing to you that I have a very big dissatisfaction with you right now.
‘killing!’
When her mother saw Dakia, she grumbled that she was a woman with a really troublesome personality. To be honest, compared to when my mother complained sincerely, that was a nuisance that didn’t even reach the tip of her toes…
I quickly stopped the blasphemous thoughts. Mother’s annoyance, of course, was of a lovely kind.
I smiled at Dacia.
“Is it because I went out alone without saying a word?”
She glared at me, squinting those big golden eyes, as if she knew better and was even more sarcastic.
“You know very well. I definitely thought that we had built a stronger bond through the sincere conversation we had last night, but I guess that was my own misunderstanding? Priest Marnak said he went ‘alone’ without any ‘consultation’ with me or Carmen.”
Her remarks were undoubtedly correct.
“Princess.”
“yes.”
Dacia responded with a short reply to my call, as if to refute it diligently. I looked into her eyes and opened my mouth.
“Have you ever killed someone yourself?”
She replied in a stern voice.
“no···.”
“That’s why I went alone. I decided that this was something that might have to be dealt with a little tougher. As you saw earlier, there was actual bloodshed.”
After taking a moment to organize her thoughts, Dacia spoke again.
“Still, couldn’t you have said something in advance? I really slept soundly without knowing anything and woke up and ate breakfast.”
That’s why I went alone. Just then, the host put the warmed food in a bowl and put it down in front of me. I bowed my head lightly to thank the owner and said to Dakia.
“I’ll be sure to tell you in advance from now on.”
There was a mountain of objections to her words, but I hadn’t come down to the first floor to argue with her. I came to eat
Dacia smiled softly at my declaration of surrender.
“Then let’s deal with the one I ran out without saying anything about this time.”
Tearing the warm bread with my hands, I replied casually.
“I’m so glad there’s a street to bump into.”
As I was chewing on the tasteless bread, Dakia spoke to me with her eyes shining.
“By the way, what the hell happened? Sagitta over there never told me, saying that the priest would answer everything no matter how much I asked.”
Sagitta, who was eating in silence, glanced at me and focused on continuing her meal again. It was clear that he thought it was a bit sensitive to talk about with his own mouth. Just as I was about to start explaining. Someone ran into the inn. It was Carmen.
“Princess of Dacia! Marnak went alone to negotiate with the mercenary corps he had a fight with yesterday! Hurry up and get our arms…”
Carmen opened her eyes wide, looked at my face, and said in a bewildered voice.
“I was going to help, but you’re already here?”
He slumped down in the seat next to Sagittarius with a somewhat despondent expression on his face.
“If I had known you were already here, I wouldn’t have rushed in. But who is this…?”
I answered by slicing the ham with a knife and pushing it into my mouth.
“This is the newly hired mercenary by the princess. Let’s say hello.”
Sajita bowed her head first.
“I am Sagitta Forgon, the son of Gilta Forgon.”
“Porgon?”
“Maybe even if I explain, you won’t understand. It’s already a ruined family.”
Carmen nodded and answered politely.
“My name is Carmen Baltas, the son of Ansis Baltas. Please take care of me in the future.”
“yes.”
After a brief greeting with Sagittarius, Carmen asked me.
“So what happened?”
Thanks to Carmen’s arrival, it saved me the trouble of explaining twice.
I explained everything to Carmen and Dacia. In addition to the fact that the ‘Red Bear’ mercenary group came to this village aiming for Dakia and that it was ‘Ilech’ who instigated it, the fact that Sajita was the leader of the red bear mercenary group.
Dakia, who had heard everything, moved her hips slightly toward me and looked at Sajita with wary eyes.
“You can trust me, right?”
Sagitta hesitated to explain to Dakia, but eventually gave up and asked for help with her eyes. Seeing him not around, I laughed. It wasn’t long before we met, but he was a very consistent man.
“You can believe it. As I said earlier, he’s been abandoned by the other mercenaries.”
Dacia glanced at my face and said to Sagitta.
“I’ll believe it once I see Priest Marnak’s face, but I hope we don’t have to frown at each other.”
Sagitta answered with a relieved face.
“yes.”
Carmen smiled softly and refreshed the atmosphere.
“I’m very glad to have a reliable company.”
Carmen, who had infinite trust in me, did not raise any objection to the fact that I had handled the work alone or brought Sagittarius with me. He seemed to believe that I would have handled it well.
“Then I’ll have to go back to the village forge. I heard the news on the way while I was picking out arrowheads, so I hurriedly ran. It’s already late today, so why don’t we start early tomorrow morning?”
We agreed to Carmen’s suggestion, rested for the day, and set off again.
***
Dakia glared at the pyre with a more serious face than ever. As she uttered a spell in a low voice, her mana surged and responded to her order.
A small spark bloomed in the pyre. And the spark grew so fast that it exploded out of control.
pop!
Carmen, who was watching from a distance, patted Sagittarius on the shoulder and said,
“Let’s go pick up firewood again.”
He has been talking to Sagittarius for the past few days with his unique affinity. Sajita silently nodded and answered briefly.
“I will.”
While the two of them went to pick up firewood again, I moved to do my part. Sooth the dead Dakia.
Dacia crouched down, staring at the remains of the explosion.
“I thought it would be real this time…”
“Isn’t the size of the explosion smaller than it was a few days ago? If the size of the explosion continues to decrease like this, we will definitely be able to light the embers soon.”
“I’m a wizard who can’t even light an ember…”
Dacia was a wizard, but she was not good at magic. To be precise, she wasn’t very used to using ‘magic’. Rather than magic, he handled the sword much more skillfully.
This all happened because she intentionally ignored ‘magic’ in the process of growing up in order to become educated as an aristocrat.
Dakia started practicing magic again when I, who didn’t know anything about the situation, asked her a few days ago if I could help her prepare for the camp with implicit magic.
After the disaster on the first day, she continued to try magic and get frustrated.
Thanks to that, it became entirely my job to appease Dakia, who had failed her magic.
Still, such a small explosion was a huge improvement compared to the first day. At first, it wasn’t just a small explosion, it almost started a forest fire.
‘killing! killing!’
He gently patted his mother, who teased her that there was a wizard who couldn’t even light a bonfire, and began to soothe Dakia again.
“Princess. Everyone has times when they are immature.”
Dacia replied in a somber voice.
“I was good at magic when I was young? I didn’t use magic on purpose, but I never dreamed I was in such a serious condition. Really.”
Well, I’ve never seen such a serious wizard. For wizards to deal with ‘magic’ was as natural to them as breathing.
To be honest, I sincerely admired her persistence in ignoring magic and cultivating herself until she reached this state. Does a wizard have to go this far in order to be educated?
“It will definitely get better.”
Dacia slowly raised her head and looked into my eyes.
“Really?”
“yes.”
She brushed off and got up and busily started preparing for the camp. I’m working hard to get firewood twice every time because of Dacia, but considering the amount of gold I weigh, I could easily treat this level of grumbling as cute.
We told her over and over that it would be okay if she didn’t help and rest in peace, but Dakia said she could never do that as we were traveling together and helped her prepare for the camp by busily moving around every time. In fact, she was quite dexterous, aside from magic.
Just as Dakia and I were finishing our camp preparations, Sajita and Carmen arrived with a load of dry firewood. After the bonfire was lit, Sajita sat down and started preparing various dishes with the ingredients prepared.
Of course, I couldn’t cook because my sense of taste was ruined, and neither Dakia nor Carmen were very good at cooking. I don’t know if it was because of my long mercenary life, but Sajita was very good at cooking unlike us, so cooking naturally became his responsibility.
While sitting around the campfire and eating Sajita’s cooking, Dakia broke her luck.
“You’re arriving at ‘Eradico’ tomorrow, right?”
I nodded.
“Yes, tomorrow I can take a deep soak in warm water.”
‘killing!’
My mother hummed happily, saying that a bath in hot water is always welcome. Carmen smiled and said.
“Still, you don’t know when ‘Ilech’ will target Princess Dakia, so don’t be careless.”
There were no further raids by Ilech while leaving the village and heading for Eradico.
Clearly it would be much easier to clean up a raid when we’re camping like this than a rampage in the city.
Attacking the nobles in the city was no different from a frontal challenge to the lord who ruled there. Of course, to appease the lord, he had to pay the price for the honor he lost. Of course, even if he paid the price, it was another matter whether the lord, whose pride was hurt, accepted the price and relieved his anger.
The reason Dakia talked about resting in peace was because she was well aware of this situation.
Still, as Carmen said, you shouldn’t let go of your mind too much.
***
Arriving at the gates of Eradico the next day, we were met with a riotous welcome. Not exactly us, but ‘me’.
After checking my priestly uniform under the fur coat, the guard jumped out and said with a bright smile.
“Priest! A priest is definitely a priest!”
I nodded with a bewildered face.
“Yes. Although I am a priest.”
The guard clung to me with a sad face.
“Priest! Please, please, go to the ‘trumpeter of rest’ who doesn’t listen to the lord and tell him to stop raising the dead. I’ll pay you enough!”
