"N-Noble?"
"He's really a noble?"
"I've heard of Baron Raks! His territory isn't far from here!"
The mercenaries began murmuring among themselves.
A few of them went completely pale.
"I apologize for deceiving you out of necessity. I have circumstances of my own, and I would like to hire you to help resolve them."
"You wish to hire us?"
The mercenary captain asked cautiously.
It was another moment that reminded Johan, a former modern man, just how irrational noble status was.
'What is so special about social status?'
If they really wanted to, they could just drag him somewhere secluded and cut him down.
Perhaps because this was the medieval era, everyone was trapped within the limits of their own thinking.
Of course, from Johan's perspective, that was an excellent opportunity.
'Mercenaries. Behold etiquette the likes of which you have never experienced.'
"I left my territory in order to enroll at Relic Academy, the finest academy on the continent."
His gaze became solemn.
His voice became dignified.
His posture became strict.
He brought out every bit of etiquette his mother had drilled into him.
House Raks was a remote rural noble family with few opportunities to attend formal gatherings, so his manners were lacking compared to nobles from the capital.
Even so, they were more than enough to overwhelm a group of mercenaries.
"Wow……. Huh?"
The mercenary captain, who had been listening with a blank expression, let out a stupid noise.
"If you are Young Master Johan, could you possibly be the one who used to be called a prodigy……?"
"That is correct. I am that Johan."
"Ah!"
The mercenary captain clapped his hands.
The troubled look on his face disappeared, and expectation entered his eyes.
"My name is Yodu. Do you happen to remember me?"
"Yodu? You said Yodu?"
His twin brother from his previous life?
Johan examined the mercenary captain's face from every angle.
It definitely resembled the face in his memories.
The moment he thought of the man as his younger brother, affection he had never felt before surged up inside him.
'No. Wait. What if he's a fake? If he's the real one, shouldn't I get some kind of Challenge completion message?'
[TIP. The Challenge is completed only after recruiting the twin as a companion.]
[TIP. [Otherworlder's Soul] blocked the Goddess's attempt to read your thoughts. Be careful. If your mental strength weakens, the defense may be breached.]
The Status Window—
No, the tip had said "Goddess."
Did that mean the Goddess who provided the Regression Trial Version had just tried to read his thoughts?
A chill ran down Johan's spine.
When his face went pale, Yodu panicked.
"W-Wait! Are you all right?! Did trying to remember me somehow make you feel ill……?"
"No. No. Something else gave me chills."
"Chills?"
"That is why I want to hire all of you. Someone became curious about how I overcame Mana Rampage and hired a lunatic mage to pursue me."
"What?!"
This time, Pilstain shouted in shock.
"Is that really true? No, how did you know?"
Pilstain looked confused.
He had been with Johan continuously from the Barony of Raks all the way here, yet there had not been the slightest sign of anything like that.
"Because of this. It is a magic item that warns me when danger approaches."
Johan reached into his pocket and pulled out the first thing his hand found.
Pilstain and the mercenaries stared in admiration at the badly crumpled piece of paper.
"As expected……."
"It looks shabby, but it must be an incredible magic item!"
[Prospective Customer, you have tremendous talent as a con artist. How do you lie so naturally?]
'I have to do whatever it takes to survive.'
[Hmm……. It seems like your calling…….]
Johan ignored the Status Window Goddess.
He still had not gotten over the resentment of being ignored earlier.
While he was ignoring her, Johan searched his memories for when he had seen Yodu before.
There were not many occasions to see mercenaries in the peaceful Barony of Raks outside of monster exterminations.
Carefully accounting for the differences between his past and current lives, Johan recalled the memory.
"Anyway, I remember you now. You were with the mercenary group hired to exterminate the monsters that occupied the waterways. You were a laborer back then, but now you're a mercenary captain. Your skills must be fairly good."
"You remember me! I learned the work from a young age, then became independent and formed my own mercenary company!"
"That makes this even better. We already have a connection. Will you help me? I would prefer to avoid fighting if possible, but we may be forced into battle."
"How dangerous is it?"
The mercenary instinct to avoid risks beyond one's ability immediately surfaced.
Johan noticed it and replied calmly.
"Less dangerous than me returning to Heo Village and accusing all of you of insulting a noble—or all of you trying to silence me and getting caught."
"……Truthfully, the moment I first saw you, Young Master Johan, I wanted to help you. I suppose this must be fate. Hahaha!"
"Hahaha!!"
The two laughed heartily.
Yodu, the mercenary captain, looked like he was laughing and crying at the same time.
[Wow. You are seriously awful.]
'And who's the one who's actually awful here?'
If that unscrupulous merchant had not manipulated probabilities just to sell him a product, Johan would never have needed to drag these people into the situation.
[This System is not human.]
'Then what are you? A Goddess?'
[No? I am not? Absolutely not.]
The moment Johan used the information from the tip, the Goddess began rambling.
[Stop trying to bait me. I am absolutely not a Goddess.]
"Still, avoiding a fight would be better. I'll explain the plan. Open your ears and listen."
[Do not ignore me. Answer me.]
"First, Pilstain."
[Grr……!]
The Status Window's anger tasted like sweet nectar.
Johan cheerfully handed his longsword to Pilstain.
"From now on, you're the wandering knight."
"What?! Me?"
"Pilstain. Have confidence. The muscles you've built from driving horses can hold their own against anyone's."
In truth, they compared rather poorly even to the mercenaries around him.
How much muscle could a coachman possibly build?
"But how could I possibly impersonate you, Young Master……."
"You aren't impersonating me. You're pretending to be a wandering knight. And you barely have to speak."
Johan forced the sword into Pilstain's hands, then gave Yodu an instruction.
"You fought the wandering knight, defeated him, and took him in as a new recruit. To discipline your insolent new recruit, you plan to throw him into a monster hunt."
"What kind of mercenary company makes a new recruit hunt monsters as discipline?"
"Your mercenary company."
Feeling Johan's unwavering determination, Yodu let out a deep sigh.
"We're going to get a reputation for being brutal……."
Sensing the mood turning bad, Johan hurried everyone along.
"Every second matters, so move! Hurry! If we are late, not only your lives but mine as well may be at risk!"
"Yeees……."
"I can't believe I'm pretending to be a wandering knight……."
"I'll lie inside the carriage and pretend to be injured. In case the mage catches up and checks, beat Pilstain up enough to make it convincing."
"…Young Master?"
"Don't worry. We're professionals when it comes to this kind of thing."
"Young Master!!"
Johan quickly climbed into the carriage and lay down.
THUD! THUD! CRASH!
Pilstain's sorrowful crying came from outside.
'The downside of carriages is that they aren't soundproof.'
[Prospective Customer, your character is truly…….]
BANG—
The carriage door opened, and Yodu stuck his head inside.
"Young Master Johan. Wouldn't it look more natural if you had some injuries too?"
"Now that you mention it, it would be strange to fight a wandering knight and come away completely unharmed. Yodu. Grit your teeth."
"Haha. Young Master Johan. I briefly lost my mind."
"That mace at your waist looks nice. I happen to be without a weapon. Perfect. Let me borrow it."
"Uwaaaah."
Feeling considerably refreshed, Johan rolled around inside the carriage.
He did not forget to exaggerate his pain when the guards opened the door either.
'How did Yodu and Pilstain cry again?'
"Waaaaaah."
"Tsk, tsk. Your face is delicate and your body had no wounds, so I thought as much……. Use this opportunity to straighten yourself out."
Leaving the village went as smoothly as returning to it had.
"You really are going to throw a man who was crying like that at monsters?"
"It is the Hawk-Eye Mercenary Company's secret method for disciplining insolent recruits."
"Good grief. That wandering knight might have acted like a wandering knight, but he seemed to have a decent side too. It is not my place to interfere, but do not go too far."
"Understood."
The moment they left the village, Johan changed into the equipment Yodu had given him.
He handed his old clothes and leather armor to Pilstain.
"Young Master……."
"……Sorry. Put these on and get some rest."
After laying Pilstain down, Johan stepped outside and blended in among the mercenaries.
Then he looked at Yodu and brought up the Status Window.
[Quintuplets]
[Achievement Perk: While possessed, Challenges are generated.]
[Challenges Unlocked]
[You unlocked the Challenge function through your own efforts.]
[After regression, active time may be divided into two separate periods.]
[New Challenge!]
[Gather the Twins (0/4)]
[The siblings who grew up relying on one another have been born as different people in different places. Find them all to receive a special reward.]
This Status Window was so unhelpful it was almost impressive.
Of course, complaining would only make it tell him to purchase the Full Version, so Johan did not bother.
'Doesn't this already count as a companion? Do I have to literally say something like, "Become my companion!" before it recognizes him?'
***
Goren, a promising mage of the Gorai Magic Tower, was in a foul mood.
'Where the hell did that bastard go?'
He had asked the guards and learned that a noble had entered the village.
Naturally, he assumed the noble had gone to stay at the village chief's house.
Yet the chief claimed no such person had come.
Even after Goren broke the man's arm, he still insisted he knew nothing, so the chances were high that he was telling the truth.
'Did he already leave?'
An ordinary noble would have stayed at the village chief's house and rested.
But Goren could not judge Johan by ordinary noble standards.
'I don't know why, but he's the bastard who took a detour instead of entering the forest.'
Goren still could not understand why.
Was there really any reason to waste an additional day and make an already boring journey even longer?
In any case, Johan was clearly someone to whom common sense did not apply.
That meant Goren needed to search places that made no sense.
"Spare a coin."
"Not here."
After ruling out the beggars' den, he went to the village's only inn.
"I'm looking for a noble."
"For free?"
WHOOM—
Goren cast a Flame Creation spell above his palm.
"Which will happen faster? Your head catching fire, or your mouth opening?"
"Eek! I-I'm sorry! I didn't realize you were a mage…… I haven't seen any nobleman!"
"Anyone else unusual?"
"Uh……. Not really. A wandering knight came by, but he picked a fight with some mercenaries and left."
"A wandering knight."
Goren had worked alongside knights several times while carrying out Magic Tower duties.
He had seen wandering knights during those jobs as well, and none had been worth a mage's attention.
No sane noble would pretend to be a wandering knight.
Still, just in case, he asked,
"What did he look like?"
"He had a rotten temper. The moment he arrived, he threatened me into lowering the price of his food, then tried to use a room without paying."
"An ordinary wandering knight."
"Yes, yes. Exactly."
"Anything else?"
"He picked a fight with some mercenaries who happened to be eating here. He went outside to fight them, lost, and cried his eyes out. The mercenaries dragged him out of the village, saying they were going to discipline him."
The Johan Goren was pursuing and had overcome the Mana Rampage.
It was common knowledge that surviving Mana Rampage increased one's Mana capacity.
No matter how little talent Johan possessed, the sheer excess of Mana meant he should never lose to mere mercenaries.
'So that wandering knight definitely wasn't him.'
Even after removing the wandering knight from his list of suspects, Goren still felt strangely uneasy.
Reason insisted that the wandering knight should be dismissed.
Instinct kept screaming that the man was suspicious.
Mages were creatures of reason.
Goren followed reason instead of instinct and searched the village.
But even after combing through every corner, he found no suspicious person.
'In the end, the wandering knight is still the most suspicious one.'
It was probably nothing, but he should at least check.
The mercenary company and wandering knight had left the village so noisily that the guards knew which direction they had gone.
Goren assumed they could not have gone far.
Yet no matter how much he searched, he could not find them.
'Suspicious. There is no reason for them to move this quickly.'
Afraid he might lose them, Goren rode on a Chimera's shoulders.
Controlling the Chimera cost Mana, and he even spent more of his carefully conserved reserves on enhancement magic.
Only then did he finally catch up.
After spotting the mercenary group, Goren hid his Chimeras and approached.
The mercenaries, who had been talking loudly, fell silent when they saw the mage.
A muscular man who appeared to be their captain frowned and walked toward Goren.
"Who are you?"
"What mercenary company are you?"
"Hah, what a rotten day. First some weak-ass bastard starts acting up, and now an uninvited guest shows up asking what mercenary company we are? We're the Hawk-Eye Mercenary Company, you bastard."
Goren sighed.
Mercenaries were foul-tempered creatures who could not understand polite words properly.
'No one is watching. Should I just kill them?'
With the Chimeras he had brought, erasing a single mercenary company would be trivial.
'First I capture Johan. If they get in my way afterward, I'll deal with them then.'
Suppressing his murderous intent, Goren created a Fireball over his palm.
WHOOM—
This spell was perfect for making ignorant fools come to their senses.
Sure enough, when the ball of fire appeared before them, the mercenaries' anger immediately became manageable.
"So you are a mage."
"Correct. Where is the wandering knight you fought?"
The mercenary captain and his men exchanged glances.
"We beat him down and loaded him into his own carriage."
"Let me see him."
If they hesitated even slightly, Goren intended to assume they were hiding something and interrogate them.
But the mercenaries willingly opened the carriage.
"Ugh……."
Inside lay the wandering knight, groaning in pain.
'Something is strange.'
His armor being slightly too large for his build was not strange.
Neither was the fact that he looked awkward.
Wandering knights often wore armor that did not fit them properly.
But his groans sounded wrong.
Goren had experimented on countless living creatures while creating Chimeras.
Many of those subjects had been human.
A human in real pain should have sounded far more desperate than that.
The wounds looked strange too.
'Those look less like weapon wounds and more like he was beaten with fists…… Could it be?'
A bad feeling surged through Goren.
The instant he began to turn around—
Johan appeared and swung the mace down.
"B-Barrier!"
CRACK!