"Father, it is because I handled things poorly......."
House Panier faced an unprecedented crisis.
It was because of the monstrous-strength knight Margrave Kranel had kept hidden.
That bastard had won a territorial war that had been promised to end in defeat, and in doing so earned considerable resentment from the opposing house.
"Mikhail, your judgment was correct."
Even so, Mikhail, the domain's heir, received his father's praise.
"It is fortunate indeed that Margrave Kranel extended a hand to us first, but......."
His son's judgment had been correct, yet the timing had been poor.
"The moment was ill-chosen. To think they would raise troops at once."
House Hatia, a nominally hostile domain by way of back-room dealing, had now become a genuinely hostile domain.
Within a single day they had led an army into the Panier barony.
At present, Baron Panier was holed up in his castle and had entered a defensive siege.
"You were right that we should have chosen a faction sooner."
House Panier had accumulated its wealth on the foundation of the Arcane Ore trade with the Empire.
Their family precept was 'Let no one know of our wealth,' and they had concealed their fortune, remaining at the rank of baron without clinging to titles, and thus avoiding great storms.
Originally, in this minor kingdom, there had been nothing that could be called a great storm.
But now things were different.
"The confrontation between the First Prince's faction, which pursues the strengthening of royal military authority, and the Second Prince's faction, which dreams of advancing onto the continent, has finally plunged this country into war!"
The First Prince's faction was made up of traditional central nobles who cried out for the strengthening of royal power.
The Second Prince dreamed of advancing onto the continent and colluded with the provincial warlords.
And the remaining nobles, the Third Prince among them, watched from the sidelines.
Baron Panier belonged to the third group.
"To think holding to neutrality would come to this......."
Observing and maintaining neutrality.
It was a fine position for avoiding storms, but it was also a position from which one could hardly expect protection once swept up in one.
"B-Baron! The enemy has begun surrounding the castle!!!"
An illegal territorial war undertaken without royal permission.
Perhaps because they had already crossed the line, the enemy showed no intention of stopping.
"First the mine, and now they covet the barony's castle as well?"
"I fear dispatching the knight order to the trade route was a grave blunder. I am sorry, Father."
Mikhail bowed his head.
Originally this domain bordered a demon realm and suffered frequent monster incursions, but from about ten years ago the number of monsters had decreased exponentially.
No, the monster threat had vanished to the point of extermination.
Seizing that as an opportunity, the young baron Mikhail had surveyed additional veins in the land the monsters had left and increased Arcane Ore extraction.
The quantity was so tremendous that he was using the domain's knight order as escorts for the merchant company exporting the Arcane Ore.
Because of that, the barony had nothing that could be called an army beyond the minimum standing force.
"How long until the walls are breached? If the merchant company returns......."
"Father, would it not be even worse if the merchant company came?"
The merchant company would use the money from selling Arcane Ore to purchase and bring back various goods, all for the sake of greater profit.
Goods that could be sold at a higher price in this country.
Naturally, they would look like easy prey.
"Might we not rather lean on the royal house?"
"It will be impossible. The Second Prince's faction attacked us, so of course they have every countermeasure prepared."
Baron Hatia belonged to the Second Prince's faction.
Royal permission and the like would surely be handled afterward by the Second Prince.
If they were going to be subordinated to the Second Prince's faction anyway, they should have attached themselves to the greater power, Margrave Kranel.......
"Perhaps, might it be possible to request mediation from the Margrave?"
At that, Mikhail offered his father a suggestion.
Hadn't the Margrave already sent the monstrous-strength knight, which amounted to a signal of sorts?
If they joined the same Second Prince faction, the Margrave's standing could crush Baron Hatia outright.
But their luck could not have been worse.
"The Margrave has only just completed the succession, so even if we send a courier now, receiving aid will be difficult."
Of all times, the margraviate that had extended its hand first was itself in turmoil.
And a rebellion at that.
Thanks to the head of the Margrave's eldest son mounted on the castle gate, the news had spread far and wide by carrier pigeon.
'A rebellion overnight and the previous house head dead.......'
And hadn't the eldest daughter who'd become Margrave stirred up trouble over a heresy matter not long ago?
Mikhail realized his father was right.
No matter how he looked at it, there seemed to be no viable solution.
"What about winning them over with money......."
"They can simply kill us and take it, so there is no chance of that working."
The territorial army guarding the mine had already been wiped out, and so had two villages outside the castle.
And in that moment of anxious desperation—.
"U-urgent report!!!"
A messenger who had been observing the battlefield from atop the wall came hurrying over.
He said.
"A single knight of unknown identity, riding a white horse—."
Before the report was even finished, the young baron Mikhail sprang to his feet.
"A-a white horse! Father, he has come, he has come! It is certainly Margrave Kranel's knight!"
It was certainly the monstrous-strength knight the Margrave had kept hidden.
"Just so! In the end a gift is a gift, and it has come full circle to find its proper master!"
A white horse they had procured from the Empire at great difficulty.
Since they themselves had gifted the famed horse to Baron Hatia as a symbol of goodwill, they could be certain.
"From which direction is he approaching? What is the scale of the knight order? No, open the gates at once so that we may join the fight—."
The baron rose, declaring that he would send out even the standing force to meet the Margrave's army.
But the messenger's next words were rather strange.
"Th-there is only a single knight, that is all. And that knight appeared from the direction of the mine beyond the wall."
He went on to report that this one knight was butchering every last one of Baron Hatia's soldiers who had occupied the mine.
Mikhail and the baron opened their eyes wide in astonishment.
—Ep. 06 Butterfly Effect.
"Everyone, hunting formation!!! Think of it as facing a large monster!"
My mine had been occupied.
First, in order to secure the mine, I cut down several dozen soldiers guarding the entrance.
Ordinary soldiers would normally run to a superior to report or else fall back at this point, but.......
"Get the chains ready, bring the horse down first!!"
Baron What's-His-Name's soldiers were different.
These bastards skipped even the report and moved into action at once.
The soldiers who had been below the mine swarmed up and threatened me.
"They said Baron Panier was a moron with plenty of money and no strength—."
"Fuuuck! Where the hell did a bastard like that crawl out from?"
The ruffians occupying the place were far too crude to be called soldiers.
Yet they were seasoned.
Even while spitting out curses, they were assembling a systematic formation with disciplined movements.
Bloodthirsty eyes that wouldn't yield in the slightest, even though I had already killed a dozen or so of them.
Old memories rose up of their own accord.
'They're really treating me like an ogre.'
Those who appeared to be Baron What's-His-Name's soldiers were forming their own formation like a seasoned mercenary company, moving to hunt me.
A front line pressing forward solidly behind absurdly large shields, and archers drawing their bows at me from behind.
And I could sense the presence of mages hiding at a distance, preparing a joint spell to drive in the final wedge.
'Anti-monster formation.'
A very familiar tactic.
'Even knights who fancied themselves decent used to go down to that one thing.'
I knew it well, because I'd once been part of that very formation.
As I was thinking this, Mel too caught on that something was off.
"Boss, those guys aren't this country's soldiers, are they?"
"Right. Those bastards are the 'Bloody Retribution' Mercenary Company."
At my words Mel's eyes went round and she asked.
"They're the mercenary company you were first hired by?"
"Yes."
A war-specialist mercenary company registered with the Continental Mercenary Guild—Bloody Retribution.
In my past life, it was the mercenary company that had scouted the young me as I drifted from one territorial war to the next in the Kingdom of Alton.
And—.
"The mercenary company that got you put on the Continental Mercenary Guild's wanted list, after you beheaded their commander and the whole leadership!"
"Right. They're human scum."
They were a barbaric mercenary company for whom human trafficking was a given and who regarded crimes like pillage and rape as the victor's right.
"This life we get to kill them all before we get put on the wanted list!"
Mel said with a lovely smile.
"Right."
I too wore a satisfied smile as I dismounted.
Truth be told, I'd told Father it was nothing much, but my life had been pretty hard while I was wanted.
I couldn't use any of the mercenary guild's benefits, and I had no one to read contracts for me, so I'd had a rough time of it.
But things were different now.
"Mel, wait on the horse."
I parked the white horse properly and stepped forward.
At some point the enemy had climbed the mine's slope and arrived before me.
"He's getting off the horse?"
The bastard holding a weighted chain tilted his head.
He acted like he might pull back at any moment, but I knew very well it was a bluff.
Because the place where I came to understand the importance of 'social maneuvering' was that very mercenary company.
"Hey, this guy's suspici—."
The bastard cut himself off mid-sentence and abruptly hurled the chain.
I recalled their operating principles.
'Approach while spouting whatever bullshit, then stop mid-sentence and strike.'
Absurdly enough, of all the tactics and strategies I'd seen, the social maneuvering I'd learned in that mercenary company had worked the best.
Whoosh—!
Along with the sound of tearing wind, the weighted chain flew at me.
Chains were hard to use on a battlefield of many against many, but in a one-against-many situation they were rather useful.
They were especially good against large monsters like ogres.
But my monstrous strength couldn't even be compared to an ogre's.
Tap.
I caught the chain by its weight.
Then I pulled, loading the motion generously with monstrous strength.
"Gagh—."
The soldier came flying in.
I gave the chain a slight twist of force and turned my body.
At that the soldier bastard served as a weight himself and swept through the enemy ranks.
He collided with the shield-bearers beside him and broke their formation.
By the time he was dragged to me, he was already a bloody pulp.
Because he had bound the chain to his arm so as not to lose it.
'Did they think a mere chain could bring me down?'
I ripped the head off the dragged-in mercenary and caught another chain flying toward me.
Then I repeated the same act.
True to a seasoned mercenary company, the bastards who threw chains after that released them in advance so as not to be dragged in.
I couldn't drag them in, but that was fine.
I had five chains in my hands, after all.
Whirl—.
All the while, arrows continued to fly at me.
But my monstrous-strength body deflected the arrows of shoddy archers entirely, so I brushed them off carelessly and advanced.
"Th-the arrows aren't sticking?"
For reference, my monstrous strength is universal.
Which is to say it has overwhelming power at range as well.
In my past life, thanks to meeting Mel, I was able to try out various attacks, and that was when I realized my monstrous strength was also excellent at range.
Among those, the one I favored was stone-throwing and the like.
'Breaking a meteor was quite entertaining.'
In my past life, I'd hurled a boulder to intercept a Mage Tower Master's meteor.
I was weaker now and couldn't produce that much power, but throwing weighted chains to kill dozens of mercenaries was entirely doable.
Whirr—whirr—whoom!
Spinning the iron ball at the end of a chain, I looked toward the mages hidden at a distance.
When I roused my Spirituality, the flow of mana came through clearly.
'Fifth-circle magic or thereabouts?'
Rather high-level for the likes of Baron What's-His-Name to keep on hand, but even so, they were no match for me, who tore through magic and aura alike.
To begin with, I had a body impervious to cold and heat that let me advance while ignoring most magic.
However, this battlefield had a clear objective, so I had no intention of letting that spell happen.
A mercenary is faithful to the objective of the battlefield.
'My mine must not collapse.'
So I hurled the iron ball at the enemy before the spell could manifest.
Shriiiiiing———.
The point the opening strike aimed at was where the mages were hiding.
The soldiers in shabby getups resembling supply troops were in fact the mages of the Bloody Retribution Mercenary Company.
BOOM——!!!
Along with a roar, blood sprayed and the flow of mana was severed.
Consternation spread among the enemy soldiers.
"What, wh-what the hell was that—."
"Fuck, nobody said there was a monster like that, did they?"
Spitting out words like these, the mercenary bastards began scattering like cockroaches.
And knowing their intent, I threw every remaining chain a step faster than them.
BOOM——!!!
The second chain I threw toward the rear rank where the archers were.
A few bastards died unluckily and the rest were crippled.
Thus the five chains I threw turned the enemy ranks into a wasteland.
"M-monster......."
The enemy soldiers stared at me with horrified eyes.
Unlike the greenhorns of my first battlefield, they were quick to read the situation.
As I approached, they dropped their weapons and wore thoroughly terrified faces, as though they were about to surrender.
No, they actually surrendered.
"S-spare my life at least......."
The sight of them kneeling and begging to be spared.
But I knew their true nature well.
'Human scum.'
It was the first time in twenty years I'd seen it, so it was almost nostalgic.
Thinking I might have a bit of fun, I approached feigning complete ignorance.
"Surrender and I'll spare you."
I even threw in a generous offer.
Seeing their discarded weapons, kneeling posture, and thoroughly terrified faces, anyone would picture surrendered stragglers, but—.
"Kill him!"
The moment I drew within arm's reach, they switched stances at once.
The Bloody Retribution Mercenary Company really were seasoned bastards.
The instant I came within range, the ones at the very front tore open magic scrolls they had hidden in their clothes.
CRASH——!
A simple [Explosion] spell.
A body impervious to cold and heat couldn't be breached by mere fire magic.
Pat, pat—I brushed off the dust and stepped forward.
Then I said.
"I'll spare exactly three."