Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Meanwhile, at the lord’s residence.

“You said you could suppress them quickly! So why are you being pushed back by those lowborn things?! After all that big talk!”

“T-That is...... Some mage suddenly interfered and handed out strange weapons to those bastards......”

“Every time those things made a thunderous sound, our side dropped dead one after another...... It happened so fast......”

“So what! Is that my problem? What matters is that you bastards got pushed back by those things! And you dare talk back to me after that? If you accepted the request, you should be thinking of completing it to the end, no matter what! Don’t tell me you bastards are planning to half-ass things now and run off after pocketing the payment. Huh? You worthless things, lower than worms! You live as mercenaries because all you do is slack off like that! Do you understand? Do you?!”

The mercenaries’ dumbfounded gazes gathered on the lord as he puffed himself up and poured out verbal abuse that crossed every line. In the eyes of those who had barely survived the brutal gunfire, the lord was a “pet pig dressed in fancy clothes” itself.

After staring at him in disbelief for a moment, the mercenaries glanced at one another. Because gunshot wounds had caused missing flesh and limbs here and there, not a single one of them looked intact. Moreover, even this was a situation where they had to be relieved and say, “At least we survived.” Most of their fellow mercenaries, the ones not here now and who had not survived, were lying cold on the road.

No, even they were in a position where they should say, “At least their corpses kept their shape.” There were also mercenaries who had been scattered as ground meat by the magic that unknown young mage had cast. And that young mage had not so much as glanced at the people dying to his magic, let alone kept them in mind.

They had barely survived after going through such a dreadful thing. Yet the lord, who had never suffered once and had been sitting comfortably in the lord’s residence, dared to accuse them of slacking off. Was the cause of this whole situation not the lord in the first place? They were merely cleaning up the mess the lord had made. Far from half-assing things, they had even risked their lives.

Then why do we have to hear this kind of nonsense?

Killing intent began to fill the mercenaries’ eyes.

“What? What’s with that look? Open your eyes properly! Are you daring to defy me right now? You people......”

“M-My lord, perhaps you should calm down......”

“Do I look calm to you? You can say that even after seeing those insolent eyes?!”

Following the plump finger trembling with rage, the gazes of the retainers - the sycophants who had remained because they could not run away - flinched as they swept over the mercenaries. After confirming once more how vicious the atmosphere had become, the retainers’ faces grew even paler.

“M-My lord. Um, the current situation must be terribly angering, but...... for now, perhaps you should endure it a little......”

“Why should I endure it? What’s wrong with me scolding mercenaries I hired myself! Besides, I’m the lord here! I’m a noble whom commoner trash like them should not even dare look at carelessly! And those things are lowly commoner trash! So why should I endure it!”

“N-No...... Still, that is......”

While grabbing onto the lord as he screamed and raged, the retainers watched the mercenaries’ reactions with troubled expressions. Their gazes touched the mercenaries’ tightly clenched fists for a moment, and the retainers began whispering into the lord’s ear with cold sweat running down their faces.

“My lord, they are mercenaries. They are bastards who will leave this place at any time if things go wrong.”

“If you press them too hard, they will leave, and if that happens, there will be no way to stop those lowborn things.”

“The defensive formula at the lord’s residence cannot hold out much longer either......”

“And the stone wall surrounding the lord’s residence was also raised by the mercenaries, so if they leave, it will disappear......”

As if finally coming to his senses at the retainers’ whispers, which spilled out in a tone close to pleading, the lord clamped his mouth shut with a troubled face. Even so, it seemed he could not kill his temper, for his plump body was still trembling.

Fearing that the anger he could not swallow might be turned on them, the retainers bowed and scraped as they backed away from the lord, then hurriedly looked toward a mercenary standing beside them. Among the mercenaries present here, he looked the most experienced. He was the only 3rd-circle mage in the mercenary company the lord had hired, and he served as the mercenary captain.

“Look here, is there no countermeasure? If we stay like this, we all look likely to die......”

“Well....... It is true that the situation has become difficult, but you need not worry that much.”

“We need not worry......?”

How could they possibly not worry in this situation? When the retainers’ expressions blurred ambiguously, as though they found him hard to believe, the mercenary captain smiled broadly at them as if to reassure them.

“I may not look it, but I have worked as a mercenary after going through all sorts of hardship. A sudden situation like this is nothing. So once I get a grasp of the situation, we will be able to settle it quickly.”

“W-Will it really...... be all right? Your subordinates have been reduced to that state......”

Following the retainers’ utterly anxious gazes, the mercenary captain looked around and let out a short breath through his nose. He had said it was nothing, but even in the mercenary captain’s eyes, the current degree of damage among his allies was quite serious.

When one lived as a mercenary, large and small losses were common, but it was truly rare for even 2nd-circle mages and intermediate aura users to all be turned into bloody messes—most of them not even making it back alive. Especially in a peaceful world like these days.

Just what kind of weapon had that mage handed out.......?

Interest rose in him for an instant, but the mercenary captain decided not to dwell on it any further. As a mage, whose basic quality was the spirit of inquiry, he very much wanted to research it, but now was not the time.

In any case, the fact that his allies had been crushed so brutally meant that the unknown young mage and the strange weapons he had handed out were on an extraordinary level. If they kept opposing them like this, the number of casualties among his allies would only continue to rise, and in the end, they would become unable to maintain the mercenary company itself.

‘Well, if we have done this much, we have fulfilled our duty as hired mercenaries......’

Muttering that inwardly, the mercenary captain glanced toward the lord’s side. Perhaps he still did not understand the situation, for the plump pet pig was still huffing and muttering something to himself. Tsk, tsk. This was why the domain, which had run perfectly well during the previous lord’s time, had ended up in this state. The mercenary captain shook his head.

In any case, now that things had turned out this way, there was only one thing the mercenary company had to do. Not protect the lord from the angry crowd, but obtain the highest-grade magic scroll said to have been made personally by the Hustein family and leave this place.

Of course, abandoning a request partway through was a violation of the mercenaries’ iron rule, the “principle of good faith and sincerity.” But did he really have to protect this pig bastard to the very end? The way he spoke to the mercenaries who had barely survived was ridiculous, and in any case, this bastard was destined to have his title and domain confiscated by the royal court over this incident and be imprisoned. Protecting him to the end would be a meaningless act.

After organizing his thoughts to some extent, the mercenary captain glanced at a subordinate waiting behind him. This was the subordinate who, from the time they arrived at the lord’s residence, had been tasked with finding the place where the magic scroll was stored.

After quietly exchanging gazes with that subordinate for a moment, the mercenary captain slightly raised an eyebrow and asked whether the mission had been accomplished with a prearranged hand signal. The subordinate gave a small nod, touched his right earlobe twice with his right hand, then lightly brushed the tip of his nose with the tip of his left thumb.

‘I see....... Looks like he found it.’

However, seeing the way he then bit his lip, it seemed he had failed to retrieve it. Judging by the open palm he showed, it appeared a security formula was placed on the spot where the magic scroll was stored.

‘Hmm, a security formula.......’

Usually, the level of the security formulas noble families used when storing items was not very high. They were meant to prevent servants of commoner origin from stealing, so there was no need to use high-level magic.

Of course, to store a highest-grade magic scroll made personally by the Hustein family, one would have to deploy a somewhat higher-level security formula....... But it was hard to believe that idiotic pig bastard had thought that far. Therefore, it was certain that the mercenary captain, as a 3rd-circle mage, could sufficiently dispel the security magic and obtain the magic scroll.

In that case, I should hurry and retrieve it, then leave this place.

With a satisfied face, the mercenary captain brushed off his left shoulder three times. The mercenaries who understood the signal began stealthily preparing to leave.

“W-What is this? You bastards, why are you all suddenly moving at once?”

“L-Look here! Surely...... Surely you are not planning to withdraw like this, are you? Hm?”

“Haha, what are you saying? We are merely going out to fight those bastards in order to protect you gentlemen.”

“B-But why...... are even the severely injured ones getting ready?”

Lightly shaking off the hands of the retainers, who still clung to him with anxious expressions, the mercenary captain lied without so much as wetting his lips.

“By nature, a mercenary completes a request to the end as long as he still has breath in him. If one drops out using injury as an excuse, the share of the payment decreases by that much.”

“I-Is that so......?”

“It is. Besides, the current situation is rather difficult, is it not? Everyone who can step forward must step forward.”

At the mercenary captain’s words telling them to rest assured, the lord and retainers looked around at one another in half-belief and half-doubt. Leaving them behind, the mercenary captain hurriedly followed the subordinate who had been waiting in the rear and moved toward the place where the magic scroll was stored.

And then, at that moment, the entire lord’s residence began shaking violently with a thunderous roar.

“Gah, w-what is this?! Why is there suddenly an earthquake......”

“C-Captain! The lord’s residence is......!”

“The building is disappearing!”

At the mercenaries’ cries pouring out from every direction, the mercenary captain looked around in shock. The two-story building was being dismantled piece by piece and disappearing, leaving only the furnishings and people behind.

“H-How did this....... Don’t tell me, is it magic?!”

“Crazy, where in the world does that kind of magic exist?! I have never seen or heard of anything like that!”

“But the building is disappearing right now! If this is not magic, then what the hell is it?!”

“U-Uh...... Captain, this......!”

“E-Escape! Everyone, to the windows!”

Following the mercenary captain’s urgent shout, the mercenaries began scrambling toward the windows. However, the situation was already rather late, and the mercenaries ended up suspended in the air where the building’s second floor had been, without even reaching the windows.

CRASH. All the furnishings and people inside the mansion mixed together and began free-falling. During that not very long hang time, everyone screamed, and the screams died short the moment they reached the remaining foundation of the building. A few more screams were added now and then by those struck by falling household items, but they did not continue for long, perhaps because the people who made them soon died.

At last, around the time the situation had settled to some degree.

A voice so desperate that it sounded ominous reached the ears of everyone who had barely survived amid the chaos and was groaning in pain.

“Where’s the magic scroll? Hand it over right now so I can check the design.”