Chapter 14
Lloyd agreed with his sister’s opinion.
He was in favor, since Jade’s joining them alone had changed everything.
Moreover, if he was a powerful figure whom Haines acknowledged, they absolutely had to bring him under their command.
“The problem is how to keep Lord Jade with us. Just because he’s from the Kingdom of Polstein doesn’t mean he has to remain loyal to the royal family. Our situation isn’t exactly good right now, either. To put it coldly, the Second Prince’s side does have the advantage over us. And there are other nations, too. From Jade’s perspective, he has plenty of options.”
“I’ll try to persuade him. As a citizen of the kingdom, he won’t be able to turn us down coldly.”
“……Not everyone is as loyal to the royal family as you are, Commander. You saw that this time.”
“……”
Haines’s face darkened at Rainy’s cutting words.
With such an obvious example before him, he had no room to argue.
“You mustn’t think of Lord Jade as just any commoner. Ordinary commoners want to become nobles, but Lord Jade is a Spirit Mage.”
“Then we’ll have to give him what he wants.”
“Exactly. I think that’s where we need to start.”
“Hmm.”
Haines stroked his chin.
Since Jade had shown no particular greed for money either, Haines had no idea what to offer him.
An ordinary commoner would covet a title, but the Jade he had seen so far did not seem particularly interested in titles or territory.
If he had been, he would have secured a position in his homeland or the Kingdom of Arhan long ago.
“Can’t you think of anything?”
“For a man, it’s usually honor, money, or women. In a way, those are the standards of success. But since he’s a Spirit Mage, I can’t think of anything in particular. There isn’t anything in the royal treasury that a Spirit Mage would be likely to use, either.”
Lloyd answered with an expression just as serious as Haines’s.
However, no method he could truly rely on came to mind.
“Women, money, and honor.”
Rainy wore a meaningful expression instead.
She was seriously turning Lloyd’s words over in her mind.
“Wouldn’t it be better to reveal everything honestly and ask for his help? If he can drive back the rebels, we can grant him anything he wants. Or we could simply ask him what he wants. That might be another option.”
“That’s dangerous. Unless we present an offer that truly tempts him, he won’t be swayed much. And if we make an inadequate offer, he might switch over to the rebels. The Second Prince can offer him anything we can, too. So we need something certain.”
“Hmm!”
Haines groaned at Rainy’s cold assessment.
That only made his thoughts more tangled.
He simply could not figure out what to offer.
He had no experience with matters like this, either.
“We don’t have much time. He could leave as early as tomorrow, so at dinner tonight……”
“Damn!”
Rainy’s words were cut short.
Haines had suddenly leaped to his feet with an expression of utter seriousness.
Then he hurriedly opened the window.
“What’s wrong?”
“Damn it……”
Haines cursed without realizing it.
That was how dire the situation was.
Even accounting for his poor condition, being caught so utterly helpless sent anger and self-reproach surging through Haines.
But this was the time to think of a countermeasure, not to give in to his anger.
“Ahh! Can you hear me? You’re already surrounded. So come out quietly. Well, I won’t stop you if you want to hole up in there, but wouldn’t it be better to die cleanly in one blow than burn to death?”
The leader of the enemies amplified his voice with mana and spoke in an arrogant tone.
He spoke as though they had already been caught.
But judging by the arrows aimed at the inn, his threat was no empty boast.
As long as they attached oil flasks and burning embers to the arrows nocked on their bows, setting the inn ablaze was entirely possible.
“Aaaah!”
“W-what? What’s going on?”
In response to the threat from the scar-faced middle-aged man, the people staying at the inn came rushing out.
However, the unidentified group surrounding the inn paid them no attention whatsoever.
They kept their bows drawn and watched only the inn, as if they had a different target.
“Commander!”
Meanwhile, the knights who had been resting in their respective rooms hurried into Rainy’s room.
All of them were fully armed.
“Things are taking a strange turn.”
“……Lord Jade.”
Finally, Jade appeared, looking as though he had just finished bathing.
He had come to Rainy’s room while shaking out his wet hair and holding Whid as usual.
Yet despite the situation, there was not the slightest sign of panic on Jade’s face.
“As for how this happened……”
While everyone hesitated, unsure what to do, Haines spoke up.
He thought he needed to explain now that things had come to this, even if it was late.
“Sir Haines, I’ll explain.”
“……Understood.”
But Haines had no choice but to stop speaking.
Rainy had blocked him with a resolute expression.
“The situation is unfortunate, but I had something to tell Lord Jade over dinner. I was going to tell him everything then and……”
“Just a moment. Let’s finish dealing with the current situation first and explain afterward. That seems more urgent.”
Jade spoke while looking at the dozens of archers preparing flaming arrows.
If a fire broke out, the flames would be one problem, but a lack of oxygen would be even more frightening.
So they needed to get out first.
“Let’s do that.”
Haines immediately answered, realizing what Jade was concerned about.
The knights and the mage then sprang into action.
Even so, the knights did not forget to escort Rainy and Lloyd.
“So you’ve finally come out. I thought you were planning to hole up in there when you didn’t respond.”
The middle-aged man, who clearly looked as though he had spent a long time in mercenary circles, gave a sly smile as he spoke to the group emerging from the inn.
However, despite the man’s swaggering attitude, Haines could not simply rebuke him outright.
The man’s martial prowess was too formidable to dismiss him as a mere mercenary.
Moreover, they had the advantage in numbers, and quite a few of them were Expert-level mercenaries.
Although most of them were only at the beginner level, the difference between someone capable of wielding aura and someone who was not was like heaven and earth.
And that also meant the Second Prince’s side had prepared for this perfectly.
‘If Jade hadn’t been here, we would have had to resign ourselves to more than half of us dying.’
If he had been in normal condition, Haines could have wiped out a mercenary force of around two hundred men by himself.
The problem was that his condition was far from normal.
Although his internal injuries had improved, they were still severe, and he had two people he absolutely had to protect.
The enemies must have targeted that weakness and set up this encirclement first.
Drip.
As that thought occurred to him, a bead of cold sweat rolled down Haines’s forehead.
The reason the pursuit party had failed to find them was not the Great Forest.
They had only pretended to pursue them so they could set a trap in the Morkas Domain.
They had also intended to lull them into letting their guard down one last time.
“Judging by your expression, you’ve finally figured everything out.”
“……Did you receive a commission from the marquis’s household?”
“Who knows? I have nothing to say about that. It’s an unwritten rule in this line of work to guarantee absolute confidentiality regarding our clients.”
“I’ll pay you twice what you received for the commission.”
“Pfft! Do you think the honorable Sir Haines Laude, who has devoted his life to the royal family, has that kind of money?”
The middle-aged man sneered.
But that wasn’t all.
The mercenaries around him all wore mocking smiles as well.
They knew perfectly well that Haines, who had lived his entire life with integrity, could not possibly have a fortune.
“That’s right. I don’t. But you know whom I serve, don’t you?”
“Ah, that’s right. The royal family certainly has enough money to hire our mercenary band. But do you know what? A princess and crown prince who have not been recognized by the royal family are no longer royalty.”
Crack!
A vicious glint flashed in Haines’s eyes at the middle-aged man’s taunting words.
Yet despite the murderous glare of a Sword Master, the middle-aged man’s easygoing expression did not change.
He knew perfectly well that Haines was seriously injured and that, as long as the crown prince and princess were there, Haines could not recklessly charge him. So he continued to taunt him to his heart’s content.
“They’re nothing more than a pretty woman and a useless little brat.”
“How dare you!”
The middle-aged man openly looked Rainy up and down, and Haines’s face turned crimson with rage.
Surprisingly, however, Rainy remained calm despite the lustful gaze of a mere mercenary.
For all her status as a princess, the middle-aged man was nothing more than a lowly wretch.
Instead, Lloyd’s face twisted with anger.
“And you, Sword Master, will meet your end today. Since our opponent is who he is, we prepared thoroughly.”
Rustle!
More than ten mages appeared behind the middle-aged man.
Every one of them wore the robes characteristic of mages and held a staff.
Although none appeared to be a high-ranking mage, the aura they gave off was quite sharp.
Their long experience as mercenaries showed.
“Hmm!”
The middle-aged mage waiting behind Haines to provide support let out a groan at the sight.
If he had been in perfect condition, it might have been worth trying, but in his current state, he would be lucky to handle even half of them.
“Am I on the list of people to kill, too?”
“Ah, you’re that fellow. The one who suddenly joined them in the Great Forest.”
“That’s right. More precisely, I was their guide.”
The middle-aged man’s gaze settled on Jade.
But the look he gave Jade was remarkably cold.
“Consider yourself unlucky. Life is a tightrope, isn’t it? You happened to grab a rotten rope, so there’s nothing you can do.”
“So you’re saying you’re going to kill me?”
“The client told us to kill everyone connected to them. They also said they’d take care of all the cleanup.”
“That’s one hell of a rope.”
“Heh heh! Exactly. We found a big-spending client for once.”
Jade shrugged.
He had asked just to be sure, but the answer was exactly what he had expected.
“Then there’s no need to think about it. Noim.”
“Huh?”
As the intermediate earth spirit Noim was summoned, an earthen wall roughly three meters high rose in front of the archers.
The group and the mercenary band were completely cut off from each other.
But that was only the beginning.
As it raised the wall, Noim, in its raccoon form, dragged every archer underground.
“H-help me!”
“What’s happening?”
The mercenaries panicked at something they had never experienced before.
However, a few escaped Noim’s grasp with quick thinking.
They reacted the instant they sensed something amiss.
“What are you doing? Attack!”
At the same time, the middle-aged man who appeared to be the mercenary commander bellowed.
Despite the sudden turn of events, he reacted quickly.
Boom!
At the mercenary commander’s order, the Expert-level mercenaries smashed through the earthen wall.
But by then, about half the archers had already been buried underground and suffocated to death.
Moreover, Jade had more than just Noim at his disposal.
“Silaphe.”
“Hee-hee-hing!”
Silaphe appeared in an instant and immediately fired wind arrows.
Silaphe had used the precise moment when the earthen wall collapsed to launch its attack.
“Gah!”
“Keh!”
There was no way ordinary mercenaries could block wind arrows that only Expert-level fighters could sense and react to.
And even being Expert-level did not mean they could all react to them.
“T-that’s impossible!”