'What exactly is supposed to be weakened here?'
Mel watched the Boss's performance with a stunned face.
Jack, hurling iron balls like bombs and shattering the enemy ranks.
It was a sight she had grown accustomed to in her past life, but seeing it at this point in time felt different again.
CRASH—!!!
He just threw a few iron balls and half the enemy soldiers were dead.
Because the long chains swept across the battlefield trailing after the iron balls.
The mercenaries had pretended to surrender in order to assassinate the Boss, and Jack had brazenly walked right into the middle of the enemy ranks.
A posture that looked utterly defenseless.
'Don't tell me......?'
But Mel grasped his true intent.
He's enjoying this.
"Big Brother, since when have you been at the level of impervious to cold and heat?"
"I was impervious to cold and heat from about the age of ten."
"Does that make any sense? How tall were you at ten?"
"About two meters, as I recall."
Mel recalled a conversation between the Boss and the Vice-Commander.
'So that was actually true.'
Impervious to Cold and Heat was a name Vice-Commander Veil had come up with.
It was a term from martial arts novels meaning a stage at which one no longer felt cold or heat, but for Jack it meant something different.
Jack's version meant immunity to cold attacks and hot attacks.
CRASH——!!!
An [Explosion] spell that could blow off a man's head detonated.
Jack took no damage whatsoever.
'Firepower' was weaker than 'monstrous strength,' that was why.
'That insane body, and a forty-year-old brain on top of it!'
Mel thought.
'Isn't the Boss a bit too overpowered?'
Every Mystery she possessed had vanished when she returned to the past, and yet the Boss looked entirely unchanged.
She felt a twinge of regret inwardly, but—.
'No, wait.......'
She soon drew out a smile of the utmost satisfaction.
'I'm the strategist.'
A strategist, a tactician.
She'd regressed and found the strongest man at her side.
The reason Mel had become the strategist called the continent's finest was precisely 'Jack's monstrous strength.'
The dwarves' missiles, the Mage Tower Master's bombardment, the World Tree's grand magic, the Empire's monsters, and so on.
The world held countless horrifying means of attack. And there were plenty of military geniuses who wielded such formidable power in exactly the right place at the right time.
'The reason I became the best is that my weapon is the strongest.'
A strategist's ability was decided by the 'strongest card' they held.
And the finest of them all was the Monstrous Strength Mercenary Company's 'boss-drop tactic.'
"Rip-Anything Jack, dropped."
"We've won!!! Truly, this is Strategist Mel's strategy!!!"
The Monstrous Strength Mercenary Company's wars generally went like this.
Mel did not consider herself a military genius.
With a master key like Jack on hand, any strategist could win every battlefield overwhelmingly the moment they properly understood Jack's power.
Deploying the Boss and still losing?
'That would be a brainless level of idiot.'
Mel no longer felt any regret.
If anything, she harbored a still greater ambition.
At this rate, [Mel's Chronicle of Continental Conquest], which she had written in a fit of childish presumption long ago, might actually come true.
'If I just swap the protagonist to the Boss, it might even be doable?'
[Jack's Chronicle of Continental Conquest]
Wasn't that a pretty plausible name?
Mel surveyed the battlefield.
Slash, slash, slash.
Jack, saying he would spare exactly three and then cutting down every neck.
The Boss was simply being the Boss.
'The Bloody Retribution Mercenary Company are the bastards who taught the Boss the importance of acting.'
They were also the ones who had shattered the Boss's idea of what a 'mercenary' was and shown him how filthy and vile real war was.
'Pillage and human trafficking as spoils.......'
The spoils of a victorious mercenary were everything belonging to the loser.
That included the right to plunder the commoners living in a hostile domain.
'Pillage' was even written into contracts as standard.
It was a world where that was common sense.
'Par for the course in a savage medieval fantasy, I guess.'
Mel's eyes curved prettily.
To her mind, the most humane person in this savage world was neither a Possessor nor a native, but the Boss.
As she was thinking this, Jack stopped his blade work and looked at Mel.
The survivors at this point numbered ten.
'Those bastards will have loose lips.'
Mel picked out and pointed to the three to be spared as she approached Jack.
"Boss, I've been thinking, and doesn't it look like this country's already been worked over?"
"Your grounds?"
Mel pointed at Jack.
"The Boss's experience!"
"Experience?"
There were four founding members of the Monstrous Strength Mercenary Company.
Jack, Mel, Veil, Yuria.
Of these, the hobby of the three besides Jack was 'Jack.'
Mage Corps Commander Yuria researched Jack.
Vice-Commander Veil had wanted to weave Jack's thoughts and achievements into a legendary tale like Three Kingdoms.
Mel, the strategist, had the hobby of investigating absolutely everything about the Boss.
So she knew it well.
"What do you mean by that?"
"I mean, these guys are big enough that they got you put on the wanted list in your past life."
The Boss had beheaded the entire leadership of the Bloody Retribution Mercenary Company.
Because of that he was wanted by the Continental Mercenary Guild and pursued for years.
"The Bloody Retribution Mercenary Company that got you put on the wanted list is a mid-sized mercenary company with three thousand members."
For bastards like that to already be sitting here dressed up as a territorial army meant this country had already been half swallowed.
"Mercenaries get hired, so those bastards aren't the ones behind it. Which means whoever's behind it is......."
There were two strong candidates.
"Dwarves or necromancers, don't you think?"
In the past life, the Kingdom of Alton had been destroyed by dwarven bombardment.
Afterward the necromancers occupied the death-filled kingdom and turned the entire country into an undead production factory.
"I gave this Arcane Ore mine a rough look and the scale is considerable. So this is why Death Knights kept pouring out."
"So in the end, it's the dwarves and the necromancers again."
The Boss nodded with a face that said he had understood everything.
Then he added.
"Veil's thinking was correct."
Veil, Vice-Commander of the Monstrous Strength Mercenary Company, had asserted:
A good dwarf is a dead dwarf!
The Jack of this life wouldn't raise any objection to that.
***
At the point where the interrogation of the three spared bastards was finished and their execution completed as well.
The greenhorn Thomson and the rest of the knights arrived.
"Ugh......."
"Bleugh—."
Some of the knights who arrived retched and edged backward.
All I'd done was conduct an 'interrogation' with Mel, and look at them carrying on.
Even the greenhorn Thomson was fine, yet these so-called knights had no shame.
'Well, it's a world where any dog or cow can be a knight.'
In my past life, I'd once thought knights were tremendously fine fellows.
"A knight is one who follows honor and conviction and devotes himself to his liege. The organized form of that thinking was called 'chivalry.'"
The knights my father taught me of and the knights I actually encountered were as different as heaven and earth.
Knights who knew honor and conviction were genuinely rare. The vast majority were vermin worse than shitty mercenaries.
'At least these bastards are a bit better.'
Mel stepped forward in my place.
The hundred knights here were among the stronger knights of the Kranel Margraviate.
They were also loyal to Mel.
I'd picked only ones like that in the first place.
"You have all worked hard."
"Loyalty!"
When Mel came forward, they all saluted and straightened their posture.
"Your mission is to guard our mine. Until I return, you must prevent anyone at all from approaching."
When Mel gave the order in a lofty, noble manner of speech, the knights shouted 'Sir!'
They spread out across the mine's surroundings in an instant as though standing guard.
Once the area was settled, I asked Mel.
"Was that the preparation?"
"What preparation?"
"The house head's seat, I mean."
I'd sensed it for a while: among the Margrave's house's knights, quite a few followed Mel.
"Right. That's exactly why my bastard of a younger brother resorted to the insane method of denouncing me as a heretic. The existing knights pushed back, so he appointed a mass of mercenary-born knights."
Failing to win the knights' trust, he denounced his own family.
Truly, wasn't he a noble through and through?
"That baron bastard holed up in the castle strikes me as cut from much the same cloth as your younger brother."
I pointed toward the castle of the baron who had promised to offer me the mine.
"Do we really have to spare him?"
"If you want to contact Veil and Yuria quickly, we have to. Finding a merchant company that goes to the Empire isn't exactly easy, is it?"
Honestly, it didn't sit well with me.
The master of that baron's house was the vermin who'd lured young ones like Thomson with a single silver coin and led them to their deaths.
"A territorial war is nothing more than playing soldier. Killing his own subjects so he can play soldier......."
"If he's useful we use him. He's an exception right now! Boss, I'm telling you, we're genuinely flat broke!!!"
"Wouldn't it be better to put some useful bastard in as the new baron and wipe out the ones already there?"
Mel sent me a pointed look.
"We have to find Veil and Yuria fast too! Didn't you say the piece-of-shit god promised something if you found the Apostles?"
"True enough—."
Find the War God's three Apostles.
It was the voice heard from the piece-of-shit god's necklace.
According to Mel's guess, it would be resolved if I merely 'found' the other two.
A god's word was a hundred percent true, so I only needed to satisfy the act of 'finding.'
'The piece-of-shit god's Authority.'
It probably couldn't compare to my monstrous strength, but I was curious, I'll admit.
No, I was dying to know.
"The Authority of the piece-of-shit god my father served, huh—. It must be a transcendent power."
I had to see just how great this piece-of-shit god was, the one who'd made my father, a master of supreme swordsmanship, leave this world unknown.
It was bound to be a power to rival my monstrous strength.
"W-what if the Authority is disappointing?"
"Then in this life, I might just smash this necklace."
I said it with my eyes wide open.
A god with garbage power made my father die in obscurity?
That was something I absolutely couldn't accept.
"So we're sparing the baron, then?"
Unlike in my past life, my Monstrous Strength Mercenary Company didn't have remote magical communication technology yet.
Nor did we have an Ancient Dragon that could cross the continent in half a day.
With no choice, I let out a half-consenting reply and made my way down the mine's slope.
"If he's still human, he can be fixed."
My monstrous strength repairs people too.
If the baron was still a 'person,' I'd fix him and put him to use.
If not, Mel wouldn't stop me either.
Before long we had nearly reached the wall.
'It's all territorial army over there too.'
A small wall came into view along with the army surrounding it.
The soldiers besieging the castle wore armor similar to the mercenaries who had been guarding the mine.
Which meant they belonged to the same outfit.
But they had a different feel.
They felt closer to a regular army than to mercenaries.
"Someone's definitely had a hand in this."
Things were getting more complicated than I'd expected.
When your head's in a muddle, you just handle things in order.
I went back over my priorities.
The mine was secured, so next was—.
'Obtain a means of contacting Veil and Yuria.'
As I advanced with that thought, the soldiers surrounding the castle began to fall back.
I assumed it was because they had seen my fighting, but the reason for their withdrawal lay elsewhere.
'So that was why Mel stayed at the mine.'
When I raised my head slightly, I saw knights waving Margrave Kranel's banner in front of the mine.
Mel must have wanted pretty badly to save that baron bastard holed up in the castle.
***
'This war isn't over yet.'
As I approached the castle gate, the baron and his bastard of a son appeared in a great fluster.
A father and son of ample build.
Seeing the state of them, I felt I could roughly gauge the level of this domain.
'Crazy bastards.'
My young days may have been harsh, but my life after founding the Monstrous Strength Mercenary Company was splendid and magnificent.
I swept across the largest and fiercest battlefields, became the protagonist of every battlefield, and was regarded as a symbol of victory.
How much money do you suppose I earned that way?
In the mobile fortress where I'd lived, there was a 'Monstrous Strength Royal Castle.'
Naturally, my castle had a magnificence rivaling the Empire's imperial palace.
In short, I had a discerning eye.
"Are you a spy from a foreign country?"
I asked as I approached the baron.
I didn't have a single grain of patriotism for this country, but seeing splendor unbefitting a mere baron, the question came to me naturally.
"Whatever do you—."
I pointed at the sword hanging at the baron's waist as I spoke.
Then I pointed at the pouch attached to the baron's belt.
"Handmade dwarven arms, and that's an imperial magic tool. Need I say more?"
"A-a misunderstanding! I merely......."
The baron began babbling excuses.
The result of verifying through Spirituality was that it wasn't a lie.
"......following the will of our ancestors, we merely kept our wealth from the knowledge of others. That is why, only within the domain—."
"Enough. I believe you."
The value of Arcane Ore would soar after the World War.
That didn't mean it was cheap now.
As long as there was demand for magic tools, magic circles, and scrolls, Arcane Ore couldn't help but be expensive.
'Not quite human scum.'
I'd roughly sized up what sort of man he was.
This bastard was closer to a merchant than a noble.
He was still human, so I could fix him with my monstrous strength.
I calmly led the baron up onto the wall.
"Do you see?"
Near the mine entrance, the sight of a noble from the hostile baron's house meeting with Mel came into view.
She must have made her move in the meantime.
It didn't look like they were about to fight; it looked like a negotiation.
Thanks to the mine's slope facing the barony castle's wall, it was all very clearly visible.
"Wh-what is that......."
"She said she'd talk to them first, since they're in the same faction."
"H-how could that be?"
The baron looked at me with a bewildered face.
He clearly took us for allies without question.
"I killed every one of their soldiers, and you're wondering why they're negotiating?"
"Th-that is......."
"Because I'm here."
I spoke while looking at the baron.
Saying that much, he'd understand what I meant: 'You're already a dead man.'
"......P-please, if you would only spare me—."
Maybe because he was a merchant type, he caught on quickly.
Now it was time to talk about his price.
"Just spare you? I could make you win, too."
The baron looked at me, entranced.
He must have watched my fight from atop the wall.
In truth, the one most excited at this moment was me.
'The fastest path to finding my other comrades.'
But I feigned indifference as I asked the baron.
"What do you want?"
"Rather than winning....... I want safety."
The baron abandoned even his semi-formal speech and bowed his head to me humbly.
It was about time to get to the point.
Before the price negotiation, I went back over my objective.
'Find Veil and Yuria.'
And thereby unlock the War God's Authority.
What did I need for that?
The merchant company and trade routes the baron held.
But asking for what I wanted outright was the mark of an amateur.
I knew the magic question that covered all of it.
"How much can you give?"
In accordance with the long-standing principle of the Monstrous Strength Mercenary Company, I asked for the first offer.