I let out a deep sigh.
“Did I fail?”
Anna asked me with a gloomy expression.
“If there is anything I lack, please tell me. I will correct it.”
“That’s not it.”
“You saved my younger sister and me, so I will offer my life as well. I will not refuse unpleasant work or dangerous work.”
“I’ll explain. Just wait a moment.”
I looked at Anna with a deeply furrowed brow.
“First, you passed. You are talented. You are the kind of talent a mercenary company absolutely needs.”
“Is that so?”
“Your build is good. Your strength is decent too. Your sense for combat is very…… rather lacking, but not many people are born with that.”
She was not comparable to a heavily muscled man, but Anna had a very decent build.
With that much strength and build, merely standing at the front would help a mercenary company.
In battle, she would be able to knock enemies down, armor and all, with an axe. Outside battle, she could carry heavy loads.
“Yes. I have split wood since I was young, so I am confident in that regard.”
“Being a lumberjack is not bad, either.”
If we set up camp in the forest, she could use any spare time to make firewood.
We could dry it and sell it, or use it for cooking or bonfires. There were many ways to put it to use.
“Your mental strength too…… From what I can see, it seems good. You are calm, you do your assigned work well. You are dependable. Good.”
“Thank you for thinking so highly of me.”
“You really are the best, you know?”
An A-Grade talent. Among rookie mercenaries of commoner birth, she was practically the best one could find.
She was not Ace Grade or Prospect Grade. Compared with women of superior origins such as a ‘Wandering Knight,’ a ‘Noble’s Illegitimate Daughter,’ or the ‘Descendant of a Famous Mercenary,’ her potential ceiling was far lower.
But I could not make everyone an ace or a prospect. Anna was the best mercenary for perfectly carrying out the role entrusted to her. She was qualitatively different from the three mercenaries I had accepted through compromise. If I could use her, of course I wanted to.
But considering her special nature and her relationship with Dana, I had to be careful about hiring Anna. It might be better not to hire her.
‘I should at least tell her.’
After a deep sigh, I opened my mouth.
“But you see. You are…… That is, the best- Meat Shield.”
I thought that was a harsh thing to say. It was not something to say before the person herself.
But if I did not use a word like that without filtering it, she would not seem to understand the seriousness of the situation.
“Is that so?”
Anna nodded with an impassive expression.
“Yes. In that sense, you are a mercenary member I absolutely have to secure.”
The talent of a Meat Shield.
A build that could withstand an enemy’s slashes even one more time, and the mental strength not to flee even in a dangerous situation.
Considering those two aspects, Anna was a top-grade talent.
“If I hire you, I will have no choice but to send you to a dangerous position. That is the most efficient tactic.”
Anna had no talent for wielding weapons. She was not young either. Even if I raised her like a prospect, it would not yield any return.
“Please do so.”
“Hey, I am serious.”
I gripped her hand tightly. Anna was startled for a moment, but soon accepted my touch.
“The person most important in my mercenary company after me is Dana. That halfling is a talent I could not obtain even if I searched this entire world.”
“Yes. Dana is a talented child.”
“To bring that one child into the mercenary company, I risked my life. I really could have died.”
“Thank you.”
“Thanks are one thing…… But if you, whom I rescued like that…… get killed by a bandit’s axe in the next battle, I think it will feel very hollow.”
Of course, a talent like Anna was unlikely to die so meaninglessly. But the battlefield was always full of variables.
If the tide of battle was bad that day, if we were ambushed or could not fight properly, if there were too many enemies, or if our allies were exhausted.
Anna could die all too easily.
“Dana would be even sadder than I would.”
The same was true of other mercenaries, but a bard’s mental state being shaken was an enormously serious problem.
Dana could naturally mix emotion into her songs.
If Dana, while singing a Song of Courage, saw her sister’s death amid a desperate battle and stopped singing. Or if she unintentionally sang a song filled with sorrowful emotion.
It would be annihilation. The risk was too great.
For Dana’s sake as well, Anna had to be placed in as safe a location as possible. Even if something unfortunate happened to Anna, Dana must at least never learn of it during battle.
“I will gather money somehow and make you an opportunity to live a life other than that of a mercenary.”
“Why are you willing to do that much for me?”
“Because you are Dana’s sister.”
I had neither a reason nor an intention to hide it. I had no choice but to treat Anna coldly as Dana’s sister.
Dana was worth that much. Even if I had to give up the best A-Grade mercenary I could find right now, protecting Dana’s mental state was more important.
“If I have a choice, I refuse.”
“Dana will want you to live happily somewhere safe too.”
Anna looked steadily into my eyes.
“Then would you send Dana with me?”
“……I can’t do that.”
Dana was far too precious to me. Not precious in an emotional sense, but literally more valuable than a jewel.
I could not give her up. Even if it meant fighting Anna to the death.
“Doesn’t Dana have to do that dangerous work too?”
“Your position is different. You will be on the front line and, if even a small problem arises in the battle…… No, perhaps even if one does not, you will be put in a position where you could die. Dana will never be hurt unless the mercenary company is annihilated.”
“Dana and I have lived together. From the day I first met Dana, I was her older sister, and Dana was my younger sister.”
Anna shook off the hand I had wrapped around hers. Then she took my hand again.
‘Her grip…….’
“Dana tried to die with me. Then I will never die after Dana.”
Anna was not afraid of death.
She feared the situation in which the mercenary company was annihilated, and she alone had to live on without knowing of Dana’s death.
“No matter how dangerous a position you assign me, I will not complain. I will keep my place until the moment I die. So please, let me be able to die before Dana.”
She was strong. Her resolve was heavy. There was something extraordinary in her eyes.
“Whew…….”
A sigh escaped me. Reluctantly, I nodded.
“Fine, I don’t know anymore…… Join my mercenary company. Welcome. Damn it.”
“I will not disappoint you.”
Anna released my hand and bowed deeply in greeting.
“Forget about disappointment. Now that you have joined, make me one promise.”
“Just give the order.”
“I haven’t seen Dana all that much……, but the kid’s mental state doesn’t seem very good, you know?”
“That is not true.”
Anna firmly denied my words.
“No, it is. If you die or get hurt, Dana’s mental state will break down one hundred percent. So you must never die.”
“Did you not say you would send me to dangerous places?”
“I will. But if you judge that you are going to die, fall back. Stay by Dana’s side no matter what. Do you understand?”
“…….”
“Even if the person beside you dies because of you, you must survive no matter what.”
Anna hesitated, unable to accept my words.
“If I judge that you dying at your post…… will help Dana survive, I will order you to die there. Until then, consider your own survival the highest priority. Do you understand?”
I looked at Anna seriously. Anna nodded.
“Yes. I will certainly do so.”
“Good.”
It was finally over. They were a motley lot, but something resembling a mercenary company had formed.
I smiled faintly.
***
“Ha.”
Five members had been added. A mercenary company of seven had been formed.
‘What am I going to do about food…….’
I had merely accepted people who were barely worth taking, yet the future had become dark in an instant.
‘Well, I have no choice but to rely on luck to some extent.’
I lined my subordinates up before me.
“First, I will explain our goal from here on.”
Dana answered with a bright smile.
“Yes, Captain!”
“Good. Your posture is good…… First, we will split into two groups. The spider swarm will have fled far away, so this forest will be safe for the time being.”
“If we split into two, how……?”
“I will return to the village alone to bring the remaining belongings and the donkey, then make some preparations. The rest of you will return to the battlefield where we fought and collect the spoils.”
Iris tilted her head.
“What spoils do you mean?”
“The Man-Eating Spiders’ webbing. If we turn it into thread, we can make quite good nets.”
Though we had gained more members, my mercenary company’s fighting strength was still miserable. It was far too uneasy to rely only on Dana’s asymmetric power.
Nets were the best support equipment for a mercenary company with nothing to overturn an unfavorable situation. If we could secure a large quantity of them, we would not have to risk our lives in battle for a while.
“May I not go with you……?”
Anna bit down hard on her lip.
“There are people in the village who helped me. At the very least, I should say goodbye…….”
“Well, if I go with you, the villagers will not do something like, ‘You dared to return alive! We will kill you ourselves!’……. Probably.”
“Then-”
“But it is true that most of the villagers agreed to that Culling. They will not want their shame exposed. There is no reason to take the risk.”
The way to win at gambling was not to enter the gambling hall. There was no reason to leap into a contest of uncertain odds.
“I will go alone. Use any remaining medicinal herbs and antidote herbs without sparing them, and gather the thread and bring it back. And the Spider Queen’s fangs…… Dig them out if you can.”
In truth, this was something we should have done as soon as the battle ended, but Niv’s poisoning and Ember’s wound were life-threatening unless treated.
I returned to the village. I brought back the donkey and gathered the remaining supplies.
“Hey.”
A large man with a fierce-looking face blocked my path.
“What is it?”
“You were a mercenary, right? I heard you took Dana. What did you take her for?”
“Dana said she wanted to rescue her older sister.”
“Then why are you here?”
“Because I succeeded. I am leaving.”
“Why?”
I tilted my head.
“……You are asking me that?”
The people of this village had abandoned four women, Anna included. This man would know that.
After a moment of silence, the fierce-looking man spoke.
“Is Anna alive?”
“She is. The other women too. They have quite a few injuries……, but they are alive.”
“……You are an extraordinary man. Follow me. I have something to give Anna.”
Prepared to draw my sword, I followed the fierce-looking man.
In the yard of his house, an enormous amount of firewood was stacked. The man went inside, then brought out a high-quality axe and handed it to me.
“This is something Anna was meant to use. Take it.”
I appreciated the item, but I was puzzled.
“How strange. Did you not want her to disappear from this village?”
“……I opposed it. That is all.”
With those final words, the man went inside and slammed the door shut. I let out a hollow laugh.
“Well, this is not such a bad place to live after all.”
There were cold people, but there were also people who had not lost their warmth. Someone who cherished Anna like a daughter.
In any case, I had acquired a very useful axe. I walked on with a much lighter heart.
Because once the food problem began to erupt, I would not be able to hum so leisurely.