"I-I'll give you the mine!"
I frowned at Baron What's-His-Name's impudent declaration.
'The mine is already mine, and yet—.'
Originally, the baron had meant to use the mine as a pretext to forge a connection with the house of Mel, the Margrave.
And for all that, had he not failed to hold even that, letting the enemy occupy it?
The one who took it back was none other than me.
"You're offering me what's already mine as a reward?"
At my question, the corners of the baron's eyes trembled.
He looked as though he had some complaint.
I merely looked down at him, steadily.
"T-That was not my meaning."
He was closer to a merchant than a noble, so he grasped the reality at once without my having to explain at length.
The mine was no longer the baron's.
And his life, too, hung in my hands.
'He'll have plenty to give.'
I spread out my Spirituality and swept over every trace of energy inside the baron's castle.
There were quite a few objects strong with mana and arms imbued with an artisan's touch, and just then the baron was reciting an offer to hand them over.
"A-Armor made of black iron worked by dwarves—."
Arms, magic tools, whatever they were, they were merely serviceable; compared to what I had used in my past life, they were trifling.
What drew my interest instead was the presence of a Mystery.
"An ownerless Mystery. You've got something rather fine."
FLINCH—.
At my sharp question, the baron's body shook.
Even so, he played dumb and feigned complete ignorance, so absurd that a snort of laughter slipped out of me.
By the time the assassins who came to kill me in my past life numbered in the tens of thousands, my powers of detection had grown fine enough to be called the greatest on the continent.
So hiding anything from me was all but impossible.
"Did you think I wouldn't know just because you hid it in the deepest part of the castle?"
"H-How could you possibly......."
Only when I named the Mystery's location did the baron finally look at me with wavering eyes.
"The Mystery is searching for its master, after all—."
Would I, its future master, miss so much as a trace of it?
'I'm in luck.'
Mysteries appearing all across the continent were the very romance of a mercenary company.
I was a mercenary drifting from battlefield to battlefield, and an adventurer who explored Mysteries.
My comrades possessed knowledge of that incomprehensible world, and by the nature of mercenary work we moved freely, so we were able to secure a great many Mysteries as we roamed the continent.
'Didn't expect a Mystery with an aura like that in a backwater like this.'
What is a Mystery?
Material things, like the 'cheap aura training manual' Mel's father obtained through Mel, are Mysteries; and so are the things called continent-class divine artifacts, like my mobile fortress.
They are called Mysteries because the meaning lies in their appearance rather than in their individual performance.
'Things that exist though the world didn't make them.'
And so: Mystery.
"......."
The baron was still maintaining his silence.
Judging by the Mystery's aura it was clearly of a considerably high grade, but even so, was it worth more than his own life?
It was time to make the baron, who still couldn't grasp his place, face reality.
"Hm. Seems Mel's taken a liking to the baron over there."
Far off, I could see Mel chatting with the noble of the hostile territory.
I concentrated my monstrous strength into my sight and hearing.
Their expressions, and even the conversation they were having, began to come through clearly.
—Withdraw your encirclement at once and return to your territory.
—Y-Your Excellency the Margrave, they were the ones who first betrayed—.
—That monstrously strong mercenary is my knight commander. Baron Panier agreed from the outset to submit to our margraviate.
—W-What do you mean—.
—If you withdraw now, I will treat the attack on my mine as though it never happened.
It seemed Mel meant to send the baron of the hostile territory away alive rather than annihilate him.
I let that conversation pass and spoke to the baron.
"They're talking about teaming up to take your territory and split the mines and the spoils. Even I think that'd be far more convenient—."
"N-No!"
As though his senses had snapped back into place, the baron drew himself bolt upright with a SNAP!
Then he spoke.
"Anything, truly anything, I can hand over. And the mine! The mine as well! In truth, we have a newly excavated mine—."
It felt as though negotiations were finally beginning in earnest.
'Merchant bastards only start an honest deal once you strip away their fallback.'
A smile drew itself across my lips.
Because I had heard something quite astonishing.
"Where'd you say the mine is?"
"A mine we dug out on top of the others while the monsters were gone—."
In truth, these people had several more of my mines.
According to Mel, the monsters vanishing from this area, no, from the whole southern region of the kingdom, was entirely my doing.
So these mines, too, existed thanks to me.
Come to think of it, wasn't it fair to say they'd been mine all along?
'Hm.'
The baron had already been driven far enough into a corner.
The way he trembled at the sight of me made that plain enough.
Push him any further and he might bite at me like a cornered rat, so I brought the conversation to a close here.
"Bring the Mystery. I'll judge once I've seen it."
***
In my past life, someone yapped that the way I collected my payment was 'plunder.'
Because the bastard called the Mercenary King treated the contract, that token of trust, like so much garbage and levied his compensation however he pleased.
At a glance it looked no different from plunder, but those who knew me considered it cheap for the price of hiring the 'Monstrous Strength Mercenary Company.'
Naturally.
There was no chance the hiring fee for me, Mercenary King Jack, who guaranteed absolute victory, would come cheap.
I even collected payment when I refused a commission.
"You obtained something called a mobile fortress? It sounds like exactly the Mystery you need, seeing as you concern yourself even with where your company members' families end up. I will provide every technician to furnish it and whatever facilities you require."
Before the Emperor changed, the previous Emperor offered me the post of legion commander in his war of conquest, and I refused it.
And then the Empire's Second Imperial Princess turned around and handed me a gift.
Giving me gifts because I'd defied her father's will, wasn't she a crazy bitch?
Even as I thought that, I took every gift the princess gave me at face value and pocketed it all.
Because every one of her gifts was something I needed.
"These are dwarven artisans the Empire has secured. They are far removed from new-weapon development, so take them and put them to use outfitting your fortress."
The princess gave me a great many gifts.
Beginning with the manpower to maintain the massive mobile fortress—.
"Your comrade, Mel, was it? She cannot use mana because of the brand. If this is implanted in her neck, she too will be able to handle mana."
In the end, she even gifted Mel a pseudo-mana organ.
It was the kind of delicacy that made me think Thomson, the greenhorn who looked after my father, would turn out much the same if he had money and power.
"You were searching for that piece-of-shit god they call the War God. Traces of your father, was it? I have sent a request to the church in the name of the imperial family."
In any case, from around then the Second Imperial Princess began to look rather lovely to me.
Of course, she had not given all that for free either.
"Big Brother, you know that's a signal to join her faction, right?"
So asked Vice-Commander Veil, a noble of the Empire by birth.
As it turned out, the very act of my accepting gifts was taken to mean that I supported the Second Imperial Princess.
Naturally, having my Monstrous Strength Mercenary Company at her back had a great effect on the order of succession to the throne.
I had known all of it when I accepted.
"Jack, I merely shared a cup of tea with you, and yet somehow I have become second in line for the throne."
The princess smiled bitterly, and I laughed heartily then.
What was it I said?
"Princess, I'll take one commission from you for free. Just one."
"Jack, hearing the word free from your mouth is all the more frightening. I would sooner you asked for money."
"Thanks to you, a custom has sprung up of sending us gifts even when we refuse a commission. So now I can pay the bereaved families of my dead mercenaries a severance large enough to live idle for the rest of their lives!"
I did the utmost for the company members who died on the battlefield and for their families.
To those who wished to return to their homeland I handed enough money for them and their families to live on until they died, and for those who wished to remain in the mobile fortress I raised a great memorial stone in the fortress's central plaza.
All of this was thanks to the favor the princess had shown me free of charge.
After that, the princess made no demands of any kind.
But time is fleeting.
"Jack, this is a commission from me. Please, please. Sever my elder brother's ambition."
Several years later, the princess gave me her final commission.
In the end, I failed to carry it out.
Because while I was preparing to march out, the princess was assassinated.
The death of the princess, an honorary member of the Monstrous Strength Mercenary Company, was a great shock to me.
After the princess was gone the Empire changed rapidly, and in the end the Empire annihilated my Monstrous Strength Mercenary Company.
'Revenge, is it—.'
Now that I'd returned to the past, the very idea of revenge had gone murky.
The Empire I had to take revenge on was the Empire twenty years from now, after the Emperor changed.
And to go up against the Empire, my strength was still far short.
'First, find my comrades.'
I set my complicated thoughts aside here and looked at Baron What's-His-Name climbing up onto the rampart.
The sight of him straining under something wrapped in a long cloth was quite comical.
And yet how welcome that thing looked.
THRUMMM——.
A rush of exaltation, felt clearly even though I hadn't raised my Spirituality.
'A Mystery.'
I don't believe in gods.
But if gods exist, I'm certain they wouldn't be beings who wield divine power, but ones who wield Mysteries.
Because a Mystery is a marvelous energy that not even my Spirituality can make sense of.
And.......
'How is that thing here?'
That energy was beyond familiar; it was intimately known to me.
"H-Here it is."
The baron very carefully set down the enormous something wrapped in cloth.
What if that truly was the thing I knew?
'It does seem to be.......'
SWISH—.
As though entranced, I stepped closer and lifted the cloth.
What lay inside was an enormous greatsword with a pitch-black blade.
Wasn't that the spoil I'd taken in my past life after tearing one of the Ten Great Knights of the Continent apart, the very first Mystery I ever obtained?
'This isn't something mere luck can explain.'
I couldn't begin to understand how a mere baron of such a petty kingdom came to possess so great a Mystery.
[The Demon Sword That Would Be Strongest If It Did Not Break]
A Mystery with a name as peculiar as that.
Originally, this sword was the greatsword used by the 'Stalwart Knight,' the lowest-ranked of the Ten Great Knights of the Continent.
The Stalwart Knight and this greatsword he wielded held tremendous meaning for me.
The knight was the fated opportunity that awakened my Spirituality, and the greatsword was the welcome object that made me truly believe in Possessors. (Before I regressed, until I got the black sword, I treated Mel like a crazy bitch. Back then I didn't believe in Possessors or any of that.)
"Where'd you get this?"
It was a weapon that should already have an owner.
I raised the pressure of my monstrous strength as I asked the baron.
It was nothing more than pressure, and yet—.
"Guhk—. I-It came out while we were excavating the mine!"
The baron staggered as he answered my question.
"I have never taken another's property, nor used any dishonest means!"
One hundred percent pure truth.
Which meant.......
'So that bastard from the Ten Great Knights was using a different sword at this point?'
The Ten Great Knights of the Continent.
By the standard of my days as Mercenary King, they were nothing much.
But to the young Jack, they were a wall.
I had a premonition that I would face a wall out of my past.
My body burned hot.
"Baron, I'll guarantee your safety, no question."
I took the sword as a down payment and leapt straight down from the rampart.
WHOOSH—.
As I fell, the wind brushed past my hand.
My cloth-wrapped greatsword bared its pitch-black blade.
A cutting edge that gleamed like obsidian.
And a hilt black as pitch.
And between them, a purple jewel.
'It's a noisy one, so I'd better deal with it quickly.'
This pitch-black greatsword was unmistakably a [Demon Sword].
Just as there are divine swords that benefit their wielder, there naturally exist demon swords that harm them.
With the jewel on its hilt endlessly tempting and goading its user, it was a dreadful demon sword.
THUD—.
I landed on the ground and gripped the sword's hilt tight.
And then the sword whispered.
—I shall grant you infinite power; in exchange, offer me fresh blood!
A laughable temptation.
In exactly the same way as in my past life, I pressed down hard on the jewel set in the hilt.
Pouring in every last measure of my Spirituality and my monstrous strength.
CRRRACK——.
A crack ran through the center of the jewel.
It seemed my strength was still not enough to shatter it in a single stroke.
Still, it had an effect.
—AAAAARGH!!!
A horrible scream came from the sword.
Left alone, this thing would jabber nonsense at every moment about slaughtering everything, and would leak a curse that drank up the life force around it.
I headed for the mine entrance where Mel would be, in order to deal with this jewel.
Countless soldiers of the hostile territory panicked at the sight of me, but not one dared to block my steps.
'A battlefield already proven.'
Through the battle at the mine, everyone on this battlefield had already come to recognize my strength.
And at my approach, Mel's eyes went wide with surprise.
"Boss?"
She seemed startled enough to forget her noble playacting.
To think she would call me Boss in front of other people.
"Why is that sword here?"
In truth, given time this sword could be silenced, so it was no great problem.
The reason I had come here now was that there was an important fact I had to tell Mel.
This sword's original owner was one of the Ten Great Knights of the Continent.
Where had that bastard obtained this sword in my past life?
The answer was obvious.
"The lowest-ranked of the Ten Great Knights of the Continent, the Stalwart Knight, is somewhere nearby."