“Uh, sorry. No, I can't do it. Let's end this conversation here.”
“Captain!”
Iris called out to me urgently.
“What……?”
“What do you mean by that? Until just now, you were sweet-talking her like a villain trying to lure a child away with candy and kidnap her, yet you are rejecting her so coldly!”
“A child? No, can't you see? She's a halfling. You can't judge her age by appearances!”
Iris looked at the bard suspiciously.
“Bard, forgive me, but may I ask your age?”
“I-I am thirteen…….”
“She is a child!”
“No, she was really a child? A halfling?”
My prejudice-free perspective had tightened a noose around my own neck. I let out a deep sigh.
“In any case, no. I can't take this request.”
“Is it not an honorable task?”
“I did say I'd try to take honorable work whenever possible, but I didn't say I'd commit honorable suicide.”
Unable to contain my frustration, I raised my voice. Perhaps intimidated by the sight of me, the bard lowered her face and fumbled through her pouch.
“This is the money I have saved. I will give it to you as the request fee…… Please, I beg you…….”
There were 7 Gold in her pouch.
It was not an amount a child could easily save. She was an accomplished bard, so she must have somehow saved coin by coin from the tips she received.
“I'm sorry, but not even 70,000 Gold would do. I can't take this request. We'll certainly die.”
Iris tilted her head.
“They are only Man-Eating Spiders, are they not? With your armor, weapons, and skill…… They cannot be enemies so hopeless that you would give up so easily.”
“I will explain.”
Taking a sip of beer, I calmly explained why.
“Man-Eating Spiders. As you said, they are not such formidable monsters.”
“Yes. In the past, I subjugated them a few times alongside soldiers.”
“Not alone, though, right?”
“That is true, but…… Even a novice holding a dull sword can tear through their flesh. They are not strong enemies.”
“That is right. A novice with a dull sword can cut down a Man-Eating Spider. But conversely, if there are no novices holding dull swords who will fight the Man-Eating Spiders, we can't defeat them at all.”
“Hmm…….”
“There are many of them. Killing them one by one is not difficult, but a large number of people have to keep stabbing them and clearing away the webs that cling to their allies.”
The small ones could be defeated simply by stepping on them. Even the large ones would die on their own if stabbed with a spear.
But not even a master swordsman could deal with four or five Man-Eating Spiders with a single sword strike.
“At least ten people. That is the bare minimum…… In any case, the numbers have to support us, no matter how weak they are. Otherwise, we can never kill them.”
“…….”
“There are only two of us who can fight. And your lungs are injured, so you will soon become exhausted and collapse.”
“It is sad that I cannot deny it.”
“You might be able to kill a few spiders. But after that, you will struggle even to clear away the webs spewed out by the spiders pouring down on us.”
No matter how solid the armor was, it could not stop a person’s arms and legs from being bound tight in spiderwebs.
“I will be crushed to death.”
“That is…….”
“That is reality. Absolutely not.”
“…….”
The bard was sniffling with her head bowed deeply.
“Would it not be better to hear the circumstances, at least?”
At Iris’s words, I nodded.
“That is fine…… Still, I do not think there will be a suitable solution.”
The bard raised her head, her eyes brimming with tears.
“M-my name is Dana. I was living in this village with my older sister…… Two days ago, my sister went to gather firewood with some other people, and the spiders took them.”
“How many?”
“Three others besides my sister.”
“Had you not heard that spiders appeared in the forest?”
“W-we had. But…… They said it would be all right…….”
“This is driving me mad.”
I immediately understood the situation. It was more hopeless than I had expected.
“Captain. I know it is an impertinent proposal, but if numbers are the problem, could we not gather people and eliminate the spiders?”
“…….”
I looked steadily at Iris. She avoided my eyes and continued with an excuse.
“Since you regard that child highly, even if we empty the money we have now…… If we can mobilize able-bodied men for only one battle…….”
“Really?”
“Th-the people who were taken are villagers of this village as well, are they not? The others surely want to rescue the missing people too. If we give them certainty, courage, and motivation…… There will surely be people who share our purpose.”
Dana’s eyes sparkled.
“M-me too! That is why I was singing! I thought that if I sang a hopeful song, mercenaries or adults might gather and go exterminate the spiders…….”
“That was supposed to be a hopeful song……?”
Unfortunately, the incongruity I had felt did not seem to have been intentional.
She had tried to sing as hopefully as possible, but because her heart was so shaken, sorrow had inevitably mingled with the tune.
“Let us try.”
“Th-thank you!”
“It will not work, but there is no harm in trying. If we do nothing for no reason, we will regret it later.”
“Cap…… tain?”
I rose from my seat. The two women looked at me.
“Let us meet the village chief. And the able-bodied men from other villages as well.”
I let out a deep sigh.
There was no way this plan would succeed.
***
We went around the village and met people. As I expected, they did not accept my proposal.
Without having gained anything, Iris, Dana, and I sat together in the narrow room of the inn.
“Why…… Why can there be people this weak! Their fellow villagers…… Their neighbors were captured by monsters, yet they do not even think of fighting…….”
“Calm down. It could not be any other way.”
I soothed Iris.
“Why? Come to think of it, you knew this would happen from the beginning…….”
“This is culling.”
“Pardon?”
Dana and Iris looked at me in shock.
“Four people went missing two days ago, yet the village is functioning normally? No, why would they send woodcutters to a place crawling with spiders in the first place?”
“…….”
“They sent them there to die. Because they were difficult to feed. Let me make a guess. Dana, those four people who were there…… They did not have regular work in the first place, did they?”
Dana lowered her head deeply.
“My sister usually brought back firewood from the forest. And she did odd jobs throughout the village…… The others also, um, helped build houses or farm, but…….”
“They did not own land, and they probably did not have families either. They were all children or women, and they had no special talent. Even if they did, there would have been someone more capable.”
“That is right.”
“They discarded them.”
I did not know why they had been chosen. It might have been because they were useless, or because they lacked the strong network of connections created by family ties.
“It is common in mercenary companies as well.”
Culling. Deck compression.
It was the act of naturally getting mercenaries with no potential for growth, or mercenaries who had outlived their usefulness, killed on dangerous battlefields.
When a mercenary died, a company could squeeze more compensation from the client, and it could take highly dangerous requests that it normally could not accept because of the risk and reap enormous rewards.
There was no reason to pay compensation or severance to a dead mercenary, so it was an economical and rational strategy.
Villages could do something similar whenever their circumstances became difficult.
When there were people with no reason to kill, yet resources were too precious to keep them alive, they could send them on dangerous tasks and hope that they died on their own.
“That is…….”
“Do not expect support. Give up.”
Dana’s tears fell in drops.
“No. My sister…… My sister is everything I have. I will never give up.”
“Think about it.”
It was a brutally cruel thing to say to a child, but I needed to make her realize the reality.
“Your sister will be bound. Tied tightly in spiderwebs, she will be waiting for death.”
“Th-that is horrible…….”
“If she heard your screams in that state—if she heard that you foolishly entered a hopeless fight and became spider food alongside her—what do you think your sister would feel?”
Dana lowered her head, weeping.
“P-please…….”
“Even if I listen to you and fight alongside you to kill the spiders…… Nothing will change. There will only be more spider food.”
Dana cried out urgently.
“M-my sister told me to keep it a secret, but…… I can actually put mystical power into my songs!”
“What?”
I could not help being surprised.
Until now, I had assessed Dana as a bard whom I might not be able to find even if I searched the whole world, but that assessment was only that she was unique among bards a mercenary could find through an ordinary hiring system.
But if, at that age, she could already imbue her songs with power, Dana was more than that.
She was a bard of astonishing talent, one whom even nobles, kings, and emperors could not help but covet.
“I-I can sing songs that give people strength, or songs that make axe blades sharp. I will fight while risking my life. Even then…… is it not enough?”
“Wait. Let me think for a moment.”
If her talent had been in swordsmanship rather than song, it was the sort of overwhelming talent that would make me declare, ‘This is unquestionably broken,’ the moment I hired her into the mercenary company.
But even with this insanely talented bard before me, I could only regretfully smack my lips.
‘If only the mercenary company had been a little bigger…….’
If this incident had occurred exactly one month later, if I led not two but ten mercenaries—if I had even seven—
I would have accepted her request without hesitation and hired her into my mercenary company.
But I could not do it now. I could not accept this request.
“Um…… Still no. Even with the help of your song, what cannot be done cannot be done.”
The buffs granted by a bard’s songs were certainly meaningful. They could make an enormous difference.
But that only applied when a certain number of allied mercenaries could hear the song and receive the buff.
“We can't defeat the spiders because we lack strength or because our swords are not sharp. Do you think anything will change if only Iris and I hear your song?”
The buffs granted by a bard’s songs had virtually no limit on the number of people they could affect.
They were certainly meaningful, but only when all the members of a ten- or twenty-person mercenary company could hear the bard’s song.
At the moment, her song was not even worth two able-bodied men with spears.
“I'm sorry. No. I can't…….”
I could not bring myself to finish speaking.
I was human too. Separate from the practical gains and losses, I could tell how desperately she wanted her family.
I could feel Dana’s love and warm heart from her words, her tears, and her expression.
I wanted to make this story a happy ending. Somehow, even if I had to hope for a miracle—
‘A miracle?’
Her talent itself was no different from a miracle.
“There is one way.”
“R-really?”
Dana opened her eyes wide and looked at me.
“I will do anything. You can sell me as a slave, and it is all right if you kill me as soon as this is over. So please, somehow…….”
“There is something you need to do…… No, something you need to accomplish. By common sense, it is impossible.”
“I-I can do it! I will accomplish it!”
“You said they were kidnapped two days ago, right? Man-Eating Spiders do not eat people immediately, but those who are kidnapped die within a week.”
“…….”
“We will need one day to carry out the operation, and two days have already passed, so there are four days left. We must use one day to rest, so that leaves three.”
I held up three fingers to her.
“If you pass my test in three days, I will accept your request. I will kill the Man-Eating Spiders and save your family.”
“All right. Thank you. I will definitely…… definitely accomplish it.”
“Good. Let us give it a try.”
If one more miracle occurred, this was worth challenging.
Dana looked at me with determined eyes.