“It is just that…… The village has no money…….”
“Choose your words carefully, Village Chief.”
“…….”
“You saw the heads I brought back, did you not? If I wish, I am someone who can kill six armed able-bodied men at any time.”
“Are you threatening me now?”
“I mean that if there is a problem with our contract, I can use force to obtain fair compensation.”
The village chief sighed repeatedly.
“There can be misunderstandings.”
“Then you should have offered 86 Gold and other goods from the start, instead of 100 Gold.”
I spoke this way, but I had no intention of drawing blood immediately either.
It was a declaration of sorts. A declaration that I had no intention of letting this matter pass, and that he should offer fair compensation.
“Kale. I understand that you are angry, but could we not resolve this more honorably?”
Iris staggered over and took hold of my shoulder. I shook my head.
“I respect your opinion, but not this time. You did not make the contract with this village chief. I did. You have no right to stop me from negotiating.”
“……I understand.”
Perhaps she believed I was intimidating the village chief, because she looked at me with sad eyes.
‘No, she does not have to look that pitiful…….’
She looked like a loyal retainer sorrowfully watching a lord who had fallen into dissipation and corruption.
“What should I do?”
“I will only take this much money. But I will make certain to collect the remainder.”
“What compensation?”
“The donkeys tied up in the stable. They belong to the village, do they not?”
“Th-that is…….”
“There are three of them. Let me buy one.”
“……How much?”
“The 14 Gold you did not pay me. Count that as the price of the donkey. Give me the one at the far end. It looked the weakest.”
“That is an absurdly low price! It may look a little scrawny, but it is still young and lively!”
“How would I know that? I simply picked it by what I saw…… Would you give me another one, then?”
“Th-that will not do! The price is the problem! Fourteen Gold is too cheap!”
Iris stared blankly at me, unable to keep up with the abruptly changed atmosphere.
In the cold atmosphere where it seemed as though swords might be drawn at any moment, a bargaining session like one from a marketplace had suddenly begun.
But strictly speaking, the atmosphere had never changed. My threatening the village chief and the village chief’s show of weakness had all been part of the negotiation.
“Then…… Fine. I will sell all the clothes, wooden clubs, and daggers I brought from the bandits to this village. That should cover the remaining value, should it not?”
“Hm, if it is that much…….”
“In return, I should receive something as well. Give me a spear. A sturdy one.”
“Th-that is impossible! You know very well how expensive a proper weapon is!”
“The wooden clubs I am selling are proper weapons too!”
“They were half-rotted! Could you even do laundry properly with those things?”
“If you use one to bash in someone’s head, they die! The spot where I was struck is still throbbing!”
“You look perfectly fine to me.”
“That is because my helmet stopped it!”
The tedious argument continued. But the ultimate victor was me, because I had a sword.
I received 86 Gold, one donkey, a militia spear, and food, then handed every piece of clothing and weapon I had taken from the bandit gang to the village chief.
“What…… was that? You and that old man…… At first, I thought the old man was pitiable…….”
Once we were outside, Iris spoke to me with eyes full of questions.
“It was a negotiation. You do not have to watch if it makes you uncomfortable. Whether you watch or not, I will have to do things like this.”
“I see…….”
“We are not knights. We are mercenaries.”
“…….”
“We are not knights who can simply fight bravely, uphold honor, and receive a fief and wages. We must win the price of our blood ourselves.”
“You are like merchants.”
“We are merchants who sell swords. I cannot deny that it is humble work…… Still, if we desire honor, we can find honor.”
“How can a merchant know honor? A worshipper of money cannot serve another god.”
“Selling water to the thirsty and bread to the hungry is honorable work.”
“Is it not work for money?”
“In essence, it is no different from a knight. Just as a knight provides safety to serfs and receives respect and wages in return, a merchant merely gives needed goods and receives money.”
Iris nodded with difficulty.
“I think I understand a little, but…….”
“While searching for you, I wiped out a bandit gang. Peddlers will visit this village again, and it will benefit everyone. The act itself is honorable.”
“I see. In the end, a sword is a sword. Rather than what we receive, where our swords point and how they are swung…… That is more important.”
“Exactly.”
It was somewhat troublesome, but using words like these to maintain morale was important work.
‘Since she came from the knighthood…… Well, I can do this much.’
When managing the morale of mercenaries from the knighthood—whether active knights or retired ones—it was important to instill the belief that, ‘The work our mercenary company does is honorable.’
If they had that belief, their morale would not be easily broken. Even if their wages were delayed or their meals were poor, they would not readily complain, and they would not run from the battlefield without good reason.
But if that belief broke, their value would fall exponentially.
No matter how well they were treated, their morale would not rise. At the slightest problem in the mercenary company, they would leave easily. If the battle situation turned bad, they would flee without hesitation.
Therefore, I needed to take care of their state of mind at least this much.
“By the way, are you planning to use a spear? I thought you used a sword.”
“What are you talking about? That spear is for you, not me.”
“A spear……? I have used a lance when charging on horseback, but I have never used a spear.”
“For now, you need to use one.”
“Why?”
“Because it is a weapon that lets you stab enemies from a safe position.”
A long spear was a weapon that could be used from the second rank, allowing its wielder to stab enemies from behind allies.
Rather than cutting or swinging at an exact spot, one could pressure and check an opponent through relatively low-risk thrusts.
“A safe position? What do you—”
“Do you think you can stand on a battlefield in that condition, face your enemy, and fight?”
Absolutely not. There was no way she could.
“For the time being, focus on recuperating and learn to use a spear. You are a knight, so you will learn it quickly.”
“I thought I would be standing on the front line.”
“You need to recognize your condition accurately. Putting someone with one eye gone, a bad leg, and damaged lungs in the battle line is no different from telling them to become a meat shield and die.”
“I thought you would use me that way. I was accustomed to it too, and I was a knight.”
“Not for now. Focus on survival. As for standing on the front line…… We can consider it later, if we obtain an Elixir or something.”
“An Elixir? Such a precious item…….”
“You never know. If we become a truly great mercenary company, perhaps we will truly be able to obtain one.”
It was a legendary potion that healed every illness and injury, including permanent physical losses.
‘It is hard to obtain, but…… It is not completely impossible. I have used one a few times, too.’
When we reached the level where we could obtain one, I still did not know whether using it on Iris would be an efficient choice.
Even so, since there was a possibility, I had no intention of abandoning her entirely.
“When that day comes, I will put a sword in your hand and place you on the front line as you wish. Until then, wait.”
Iris closed her eyes and seemed to collect her thoughts calmly.
“Thank you. And I should treat you as my superior now as well. You do not need to speak honorifically to me.”
“Really?”
“Yes. From now on, I will devote my loyalty to you, Captain. Until the moment my life ends.”
“……Huh?”
Hearing a knight’s oath of loyalty was never easy.
It was an event that could only be seen after earning a knight’s trust through long battles and journeys, and after both the mercenary company’s reputation and the captain’s personal reputation had reached a certain level.
“Good.”
I did not know why this event had occurred so suddenly, but whatever the reason, it was not bad for me.
I had gained Iris.
***
When she had been trapped in the cave,
Iris had quietly awaited death.
She had been betrayed. Her lord’s blood relative had coveted the position of head of the house and killed her lord.
The knights who had served the same lord as her until the day before had betrayed her. Those she had believed pursued honor alongside her had been corrupted by greed.
The honorable knight Iris had become a fallen criminal in an instant. Soldiers pursued her.
When she dropped her weapon, lost one eye, suffered a sword wound to her lung, and had the bones in her leg crushed by a hammer,
she expected that she would die. She had no choice but to accept the death that slowly approached her.
But death did not come for her. What came for her was a young mercenary.
Iris had asked him to kill her, but he did not want that. Instead, he accepted injured and sick Iris as a mercenary.
It was a secretly appealing offer to Iris as well. As a knight and a warrior, she wished to die fighting, not to quietly collapse and die.
Yet even as she went with him, she still believed death was not far away. There could be no place in a mercenary company for a disabled person.
She thought that, at most, she would die after two or three battles. She did not believe the man would accept her as a genuine member of the mercenary company; he merely wanted a meat shield to die in his stead.
When she saw him haggle over a donkey and bargain like a vulgar merchant by inflating the value of a half-rotted wooden club, that suspicion became certainty.
She thought that someone who calculated every benefit so thoroughly could not fail to know how miserable her condition was.
But he said it as though it were nothing.
-That spear is for you, not me.
He was not putting Iris on the front line and treating her as a shield to take swords in his place.
No mercenary company would put a member it intended to use and discard, a freeloader, in the rear. But he was seriously concerned for her survival.
That was not all.
-As for standing on the front line…… We can consider it later, if we obtain an Elixir or something.
He spoke of an Elixir as though it were nothing. He spoke of the hope she had carefully put away, of the possibility that she might stand on the battlefield again with a healthy body.
Only minutes earlier, he had been the captain of a tiny mercenary company that had not even possessed a donkey. An item so precious that one could hardly dare hope for it.
He was telling her that he would use it on her.
‘This is…….’
He was sincerely caring for her. Even though theirs was a mercenary company of only two people, he was striving for Iris’s survival.
She felt protected, as though she had become a lady rather than a knight. It was a feeling far too unfamiliar to her.
He looked at her seriously, even though she had lost both honor and lord.
-From now on, I will devote my loyalty to you, Captain.
As though enchanted, Iris swore loyalty to her new lord.
To Iris, who could no longer trust people and believed that everyone was her enemy-
-Until the moment my life ends.
Kale was the only person who had reached out to her first.