“The second task may be…… a little easier than the first demand. Depending on the circumstances, though, it may be incomparably harder.”
“Leave it to me! I can do anything!”
Dana gave a bright smile. As her words suggested, it was a smile full of confidence.
“You may think this instruction is an excessive demand. In fact, it is an excessive demand.”
This task was not something that could be solved through talent alone.
“But I have to stake my life. You need to do at least this much for me to think that staking my life is worthwhile.”
“Understood! What do I have to do?”
“Sing. You know how, right?”
“Yes!”
“You only have to sing it in front of me.”
“Really? That is all? Shall I start right away?”
“For eight hours.”
“……Pardon?”
Dana’s eyes filled with shock.
“I know, I know. You think it is an absurd condition. I understand.”
“…….”
“This is not an ability one can expect from a bard who has only just joined a mercenary company, much less one who has not even become an adult.”
Only after bringing in a bard with reasonable talent, finding a teacher whenever we reached a large village, having the bard trained, and feeding them precious medicines so they could grow could I expect this to succeed.
“I-I understand. But…… Setting aside whether it is possible, could you explain…… what it means?”
“Naturally, you must sing it because I need you to sing it. Why do you think I taught you this song?”
“Can it not kill spiders just by being sung?”
“Only when they are small spiders about that size. Spiders large enough to eat people will not die from it. At most, it makes them shrink back a little.”
“So it is to buy time…….”
“Yes. And we need a great deal of time.”
“Do we need eight hours?”
“Not that much. We need…… roughly three hours? Four at most. Once we pass that point, our bodies will not endure anyway.”
Once a fight began, we could only fight in peak condition for an hour or two at most. After that, we had no choice but to fight with the mindset of merely holding on.
And in that kind of situation, the song’s importance grew even greater.
“But singing here and singing on a battlefield will be different.”
Truthfully, I had not experienced many battlefields in this world either. Even so, I could offer this much advice.
“The forest is dangerous. It will be dark. Sticky spiderwebs will keep touching your face. Spider screams will torment your ears, and the stench of rotting corpses will torment your nose.”
“…….”
“Even walking will not be easy. A spider might appear in front of you and threaten you, and you may have to draw a weapon and fight.”
That was not an exaggeration intended to frighten her. I was only calmly mentioning what might happen in the future.
“In that situation, you must sing without stopping.”
“What happens if I stop?”
“Why make it complicated? We all die.”
“Really?”
“That is likely, I suppose.”
There were only two people who could fight. To be more exact, there were only one and a half.
Iris’s injuries had not fully healed. On top of that, she had to fight with a spear instead of the sword she was accustomed to.
“We must kill every spider in that forest. At the very least, we must fight with that resolve.”
“Can we not just fight a little and run away?”
“You wanted to save the kidnapped people, did you not? We have to enter the heart of their nest. Running away will be…… difficult.”
If I threw an experienced mercenary who was willing to fight to the death to the spiders as food, we might be able to escape.
But I was the only person in my company who could fill that role. I did not want to sacrifice my life to save everyone else.
“You must fight until you die. Do you understand?”
That was why she literally had to sing until she died.
Even if blood flowed from her legs, even if she was surrounded by spiders, she could never stop singing.
Our lives depended on her song.
“……All right. I will try. I can do it.”
“Good. Let us try it immediately. You can do it, right?”
This was a test of her ability, but it was also a test to see how much grit she had.
“Should I put spiders…… in front of me?”
“No. They are hard to procure, and I already know how it feels when you properly put power into the song. Just do it. Let us begin.”
“Yes!”
We went far away so that we would not disturb anyone. Dana began to sing.
‘…….’
The familiar melody rang out. I calmly took my stance and listened to her song.
‘By common sense, this is too much. It is an absurd condition.’
This demanded not only talent but also stamina and mental strength. And since she was a child, it was inevitable that her mental strength would fail quickly, even setting aside her stamina.
By common sense, she could not do it. It was impossible. She was a girl of outstanding talent, but one who had not yet fully blossomed. Expecting her to achieve such a feat was impossible.
Even so, she had to do it.
‘Ha…….’
Honestly, I had no reason to care whether she succeeded or failed. No, it would have been better if she failed.
She had agreed to become a member of my mercenary company under our contract regardless. In that case, instead of staking my life on a dangerous operation, I could safely gather strength.
By delivering letters, transporting goods, escorting merchant caravans, and doing small-scale trade—the sort of work a small mercenary company like ours could do for a fair price.
Whether her sister died or not was none of my concern.
‘But…….’
Deep down, I wanted her to succeed too.
I did not want a short, cruel sentence like, ‘She lost the sister who was as precious as her life,’ written into Dana’s background when she joined the mercenary company.
About an hour passed. She sang without resting.
“Stop.”
“Y-yes……? I sang it well! Did I succeed—”
“Do not say a word without my permission. I will give you twenty seconds. Drink water and ready your throat.”
“Yes!”
“Only nod your head.”
I handed her a sip of water.
“Start again.”
Dana sang.
It was beautiful. Gentle. Fierce and sharp, clear and stately.
The power contained within it surged wildly. The pulse of a bird of prey that killed spiders resounded through the world.
An hour passed. I gave her another sip of water and calmly waited.
Another hour passed. She continued to sing calmly, without wavering.
‘……What is this?’
Nothing changed. Not her posture, her pitch, her breathing, or her song.
I gave her water. Another hour passed.
‘This…….’
I felt the need to change the plan.
She was stronger than I had imagined. Greater. As I had first felt, she was not someone who belonged in a single mercenary company.
Then I, too, needed to repay that talent and effort. We had to begin the operation even a little sooner, while the chance that her sister was alive remained high.
“That is enough.”
“…….”
She stopped singing and stared blankly at me.
“My original plan was to watch you sing for eight hours, rest for all of tomorrow, then begin the operation the day after that.”
But it no longer seemed necessary.
“You can endure. So we can move the plan forward. Do not say anything today. Rest well. And SDS…… Um, can you sing the ‘Sweet Dream Song’?”
Dana nodded. I gave a satisfied smile.
“Can you sleep to that song too?”
Once again, she nodded.
“Good. Then we will rest for about four hours, then sleep immediately. We will wake around two in the morning and begin the operation. You can prepare for that, right?”
At my words, Dana smiled and nodded vigorously.
***
The Sweet Dream Song.
An experienced bard could sing a song that put allied mercenaries to sleep at the desired time and woke them at the desired time.
The strategic value gained from that was considerable. We could carry out an operation steadily, without the poor condition that accompanied a nighttime operation.
Night came, and the group woke up.
I explained the operation to Iris and Dana.
“Dawn is the time when they are at their weakest.”
“Do not Man-Eating Spiders move at night and sleep during the day?”
“That is right. But because of that, they are all gathered in their nest during the day. They are not completely blind, so we will be able to see much better too.”
“That is…….”
“As I said, we are weak. It makes no sense for three people to hunt a group of Man-Eating Spiders. We need to increase our numbers somehow.”
“Who are you saying we should bring with us?”
“The four people who are tied up.”
I had prepared jerky and water for them in advance. They would have had enough sleep while inside the webs, so if we could solve their hunger and thirst, we could use them as fighting strength, however slight.
“Even if they are awake, the defenses of their nest will be rather lax. If we move carefully, we can at least rescue the people who are tied up.”
“I see…….”
“After rescuing them, we will find favorable terrain as quickly as possible. A path open at both ends, where we can stand back to back and protect each other.”
Using pebbles, I arranged simple tokens.
“I will block one side, and Dana’s sister will stand behind me.”
Iris tilted her head.
“Why?”
“There are two reasons. First, I need someone to clear the spiderwebs that stick to my body. Second, the place behind me is the safest position.”
“Would it not be better for Dana to go there?”
“Dana has to focus only on singing. Dana will stand behind her sister…….”
After grouping three tokens together, I began placing four tokens directly beside them.
“On this side, four people will block one path. One of the people we rescue will clear spiderwebs from behind, as before. Iris will thrust with her spear from a diagonal position, and the remaining two will stand in front and stop the spiders.”
“Why am I not standing on the very front line? This is like using the people we rescue as meat shields—”
“That is right.”
“……Is this the way of mercenaries?”
“My life is the most important. Dana comes next, you are third, and Dana’s sister is fourth.”
I had set priorities because there could be sacrifices.
Dana looked at me with gloomy eyes, but I had no choice but to make this decision.
“It cannot be helped if the others end up in a somewhat dangerous situation. That is the first reason…….”
There was another practical problem as well.
“The best weapon we have right now is the spear. Every other weapon is crude.”
An abandoned plow, an old club, and short, blunt daggers that had been hurriedly sharpened.
Unlike those makeshift weapons, the spear I had given Iris was at least a proper weapon.
“We have to make use of the spear’s strengths.”
A spear was a second-row weapon. It was not bad when used normally, but it showed its true worth when it was not pressed close to the enemy and had some distance to work with.
“I understand. I will follow your orders.”
“Even so, move with the intention of saving them as much as possible. If the front line collapses, you will not last long either.”
“Understood.”
“Good. We are finished familiarizing ourselves with the operation. Now let us begin.”
I took a deep breath.
I was not undertaking this operation merely because I felt sorry for Dana.
Her mere existence gave her the potential to change the fate of this mercenary company. That was why, even if it was somewhat unreasonable, I needed to win Dana’s heart.
With her alone, I could overcome the many requests and hardships that might threaten my life in the future.
And I had not neglected the preparations either.
Knowledge, money, weapons, stamina. I mobilized everything. I devoted everything to a single successful operation and a safe return.
Now all that remained was to fight.