Chapter 225

The Romance of Travel

“Ahem. Was I really that obvious?”

Since they had already misunderstood me, I decided I might as well take advantage of it.

“It happens from time to time,” Guts explained. “Especially with young nobles from knightly families. They learn martial arts and mana cultivation methods from childhood, awaken aura early, and become Aura Users while they’re still young.”

“Then they get sick of spending all their time training on the family estate,” Elin continued. “They want to see how strong they really are outside, so they run off into the world.”

“Usually their families send soldiers and knights along to protect them.”

“But sometimes they sneak away without telling their parents.”

“Most of those young nobles are arrogant enough that you can tell what they are at a glance.”

“But if one of them is polite enough to at least try hiding it, and he’s strong on top of that, there’s no real reason not to travel with him.”

Guts and Elin alternated naturally, almost as though they had rehearsed the explanation.

Apparently, this sort of thing was not particularly rare.

Makes sense. No one is going to suspect I’m actually an orc.

Humans in this world regarded orcs as monsters.

It was like meeting a strange man on Earth who kept spouting suspicious nonsense and constantly asking questions about national politics.

Someone might think, Is this guy a spy?

But almost no one would think, Is this actually a tiger that transformed into a human?

“Anyway, we don’t know anything,” Guts said.

“Exactly,” Elin agreed. “We’re merely saying that people like that exist. And if someone happened to be such a person, perhaps they should be a little more careful about making it obvious.”

“We’re mercenaries. There’s no need to dig too deeply into each other’s pasts.”

“Hahaha. Of course. It’s better for everyone if we get along.”

They were essentially agreeing to pretend not to see what they thought they had discovered.

That suited me just fine.

Sometimes it was actually more comfortable for coworkers to maintain a reasonable distance instead of becoming overly close.

While chatting with Guts and the others, we eventually reached the Mercenary Guild.

Are guild branch managers manufactured in the same factory or something?

That was my first thought after entering.

Just like the branch manager I had seen in Lindberg territory, the man here was enormous, covered in scars, and looked thoroughly intimidating.

“Oh? You’re back after only two days.”

His manner of speaking apparently came from the same factory too.

“Run into trouble? Lose an arm? Someone get crippled?”

“There was a problem,” Guts replied.

“What kind?”

“The hunting went too well.”

Guts grinned confidently and dropped his bundle of monster materials onto the table with a heavy thud.

Elin and Burke followed suit.

I placed my own bundle down beside theirs.

“Hmm?”

The branch manager’s gaze shifted toward me.

“Don’t recognise this one.”

“He’s a sightseer,” Guts said. “We ran into him in the forest.”

“Ah.”

The branch manager looked me up and down.

“Unexpected. He looks exactly like one of us.”

I found that strangely insulting coming from a man with a face like his.

I was muscular, certainly, but my face was reasonably handsome.

Of course, the face currently visible was one created by the illusion bracelet.

“So how good is he?”

“Would we have brought him back with us if he were useless? We gathered this much in two days largely because of him.”

“Oh?”

“You planning to keep travelling together?”

“If he’s willing, probably for a while. Which is why I want you to make him a mercenary badge.”

“What level?”

“A beginner as a mercenary, but he’s a beginner Aura User.”

“If you’re vouching for him, that’s enough for me.”

The branch manager nodded.

“Then he can start with a silver badge.”

The conversation between Guts and the branch manager moved incredibly quickly.

Judging by the way the man trusted Guts’s assessment without hesitation, Guts really was a veteran with an established reputation.

“What’s your name?”

The branch manager suddenly addressed me without any courtesy at all.

The word sightseer was obviously mercenary slang for a sheltered young noble who had wandered out to experience the world.

Which meant the branch manager was speaking casually to me despite believing I was a noble.

Maybe it was a little test.

If I became offended, there would be no point in pretending to hide my status.

“Karath.”

I had no intention of bowing and scraping merely to preserve my disguise.

When I responded just as casually, the branch manager stared at me.

I simply smiled.

“Krahahaha! Interesting bastard.”

After a short staring contest, he burst into laughter.

“No matter how I look at you, you really do seem like one of us. Are you sure you’re a sightseer?”

He disappeared into a room behind the counter.

There came a series of clanks and scraping noises.

A short while later, he returned holding a silver badge.

“Here.”

My name had been stamped onto it.

What’s different?

I compared it mentally with the counterfeit silver badge I had made.

Honestly, mine had been better crafted.

This thing looked like a secondhand trinket made by a child.

Ah.

Maybe the terrible workmanship is proof that it’s authentic.

While I examined my newly legitimate badge, Guts spoke to the branch manager, who was sorting through the monster materials.

“Anything come in during the last two days?”

“I was about to tell you.”

The manager nodded.

“A merchant caravan leaves in three days. Interested?”

“Heh heh. Why even ask? That’s half the reason we came here.”

“Thought so. I’ll register you.”

He glanced at Guts.

“The caravan leaves in three days. What are you doing until then?”

“We just got back. We’re resting.”

Guts grinned.

“You drinking tonight or tomorrow?”

“I’ll come find you after I finish here tonight.”

Both men were experienced enough that half the details went unspoken, yet the conversation flowed perfectly.

With our business finished, we left the Mercenary Guild.

“We’re joining a merchant caravan in three days?”

“Yes.”

Elin smiled mischievously at my question.

“That was one reason we came here in the first place. We were hoping to pick up an escort job.”

“I assume you’re going to tell me what kind of caravan it is.”

“Hehe. Curious?”

“Ahem. Naturally. I may be travelling with it.”

“It’s nothing complicated.”

Elin gestured vaguely around the city.

“You heard earlier that Sudin Castle controls a silver mine, right? They need to transport the silver somewhere to sell it. Same with jewelry and other silver goods made here.”

“Ah.”

I nodded.

“So caravans must leave regularly. And since the Grimwood Mountains are nearby, there are plenty of monsters to hunt as well.”

I considered the situation.

“This really is a place where work rarely dries up.”

“Oh.”

Elin raised her eyebrows.

“Mr. Karath, you’re smarter than you look.”

Burke chuckled.

“She’s right. Whenever work gets scarce elsewhere, we usually come here. We hunt monsters for a while, and eventually an escort request like this appears.”

I nodded as they explained.

I should probably follow this caravan.

If I wanted useful information, I needed to travel deeper into human territory.

After walking and talking for a while, we reached the inn Guts’s group regularly used.

“I’ll take a private room.”

Since I was concealing my identity, sleeping alone was far more convenient.

Guts and the others believed I was some runaway noble anyway, so none of them found the request unusual.

I entered the room, dropped off my belongings, then came back downstairs for a simple dinner with the group.

Naturally, beer was involved.

After drinking and talking with them for a while, I stood.

“I’ll head upstairs first.”

I returned to the second floor.

Once inside my room, I carefully took out an object that looked somewhat like a stone.

The telephone.

“Ah. This is Karath. Can you hear me?”

I finished setting it up and supplied it with mana.

A short while later, a voice came through.

“We hear you clearly, Grand Chief.”

“I entered the human castle safely today. Has anything happened in the alliance?”

“Following your instructions, we divided the forces into four groups and began the expansion.”

Through the device I called a telephone, despite it functioning more like a radio, I exchanged reports with Krog, Berners, and Doltz.

They told me what had happened since I left.

In return, I briefly explained what I had seen and learned in human territory.

“Oh, right.”

Something suddenly occurred to me.

“Now that I’ve seen human fortifications firsthand, Root City’s walls really are large and sturdy. They looked better than the walls here.”

I smiled.

“Tell Orga that for me. Tell him he did an excellent job building them.”

“Understood, Grand Chief. I’m sure Orga will be delighted to hear it.”

Talking through the telephone like this made me feel strangely like the protagonist of some espionage film.

Though I doubt many countries have their king personally working as a spy.

Well.

Grand Chief, technically.

Either way, it was a strange feeling.

Chapter 226

The Romance of Travel

I rested for a day, but the caravan still had two more days before departure.

So I spent that time exploring Sudin Castle and studying human civilisation firsthand.

Because the castle stood near the frontier and saw constant mercenary traffic, there were numerous blacksmiths.

I visited several workshops and compared the weapons and armour on display with what the alliance currently produced.

Our materials are better.

Human craftsmanship is better.

That was my overall assessment.

A considerable number of the alliance’s weapons and armour incorporated materials harvested from unusual monster specimens.

Our iron was also relatively high quality because I had created a magically controlled environment that allowed our smiths to remove impurities more effectively than an ordinary medieval forge could.

But when it came to actually shaping those materials into finished weapons and armour, human smiths were noticeably more refined.

Which was understandable.

The alliance had only possessed anything resembling proper blacksmithing for around four years.

Considering that, our current achievements were already remarkable.

If only I could find a truly skilled blacksmith somewhere.

Our raw materials were good enough.

With better craftsmen, the alliance could probably produce weapons superior to those made by humans.

Sudin also had numerous shops selling silver goods because of the nearby mine.

Rings.

Necklaces.

Various decorated objects.

Had I still been human, I might have bought souvenirs to give away when I returned home.

But what was I supposed to do with silver jewelry for orcs, goblins, and beastfolk?

Two days passed quickly while I wandered around the castle.

“They’re gathering in the square outside the main gate.”

Guts led us out of the inn.

“We should head there too.”

Because Sudin Castle functioned as a frontier stronghold, the gate through which I had entered after descending from the Grimwood Mountains was effectively the rear gate.

The main gate faced away from the mountains and toward human civilisation.

Looking at it somehow felt like standing at the end of a tutorial area, staring through the gate that led into the real game world.

“Are you Guts’s party?”

“Yes. Four warriors and one mage.”

“Confirmed.”

A man who appeared to belong to the merchant company inspected us briefly, then returned to the wagons.

There were three wagons loaded with goods that were probably related to silver.

Five mounted knights stood beside them.

Around twenty soldiers formed another layer of protection.

Including us, there were roughly twenty mercenaries.

Once the merchants, drivers, and other caravan personnel were counted, the entire group numbered close to sixty.

“That’s a serious escort.”

“It usually is,” Burke replied.

“They call it a merchant company, but it’s actually managed directly by His Excellency Count Reynold, lord of Sudin Castle and the frontier margrave.”

Guts laughed.

“That’s why there are five knights here. You don’t normally see knights escorting an ordinary merchant caravan.”

“The knights only travel as far as Betony City,” Elin explained. “That’s the closest major city.”

“Once we reach Betony, the silver will be divided according to its destination. From there, ordinary mercenaries usually take over.”

“For the journey between here and Betony, though, all the silver travels together. That’s why they temporarily assign knights.”

That made sense.

A few smaller shipments were one thing.

Three entire wagons filled with silver were enough wealth to make almost anyone greedy.

“Hehehe.”

Elin suddenly pointed with her chin.

“Mr. Karath, there’s another one like you over there.”

Among the various groups of three to five mercenaries stood a clean-looking young man who appeared to be in his late teens.

He certainly stood out.

“Hahaha... I think I understand what you meant now.”

“Honestly, you were slightly harder to notice because of your appearance.”

Elin grinned.

“That guy is painfully obvious.”

He looked far too neat to be a mercenary.

He really did resemble some sheltered young master who had come out to see the world.

Though I still didn’t understand why everyone kept saying I looked like a mercenary.

“OPEN THE GATES!”

While we whispered among ourselves, the castle gates opened.

The soldiers left first.

The wagons and knights followed.

The mercenaries were assigned to the rear.

We walked behind the wagons for several hours.

Damn.

I miss Buddy.

It had not bothered me while hunting in the mountains.

But watching those knights comfortably ride horses a short distance ahead made me remember Buddy’s broad, comfortable back with painful clarity.

“Yaaawn.”

Elin stretched.

“This is always the worst part.”

“Stay alert, idiot. The knights will start complaining again.”

“Isn’t calling them that more dangerous than stretching?”

Apparently, Guts’s group was just as annoyed by the fact that the knights were the only ones riding.

“There are five knights and around forty armed escorts here.”

Elin stretched again.

“What lunatic bandits would attack this group? The knights just complain because mercenaries annoy them.”

She clicked her tongue.

“I almost wish something would attack us. Walking like this is making me fall asleep.”

Then her expression brightened as though she had thought of something amusing.

“Actually, Captain, isn’t this the perfect situation for orcs to suddenly jump out?”

“Huh?”

Why orcs all of a sudden?

“You know.”

Elin gestured dramatically.

“It’s exactly like one of those stories for children. The hero hides his identity and joins a merchant caravan while travelling the world.”

She pointed between me and the suspiciously well-groomed young man we had noticed earlier.

“Then orcs suddenly appear, everyone gets into terrible danger, and the secretly powerful hero steps forward and saves the entire caravan.”

She grinned.

“Doesn’t that sound romantic?”

“You crazy woman. Don’t say unlucky things like that. Words have a way of becoming real.”

“Oh, come on.”

Elin waved him off.

“Orcs aren’t even that frightening. I’d rather have a few orcs show up than keep walking around bored like this.”

Guts naturally scolded her for the ridiculous suggestion.

I simply smiled while watching them.

Should I turn off the disguise for a moment?

Chapter 227

The Romance of Travel

For a moment, I genuinely considered granting Elin’s wish by dropping the illusion and providing a surprise event.

A surprise massacre event, perhaps.

“We will stop here briefly for a meal, then continue.”

At the knights’ order, everyone simply sat down in roughly the same formation we had been walking in.

The knights enjoyed generous meals prepared by attendants or members of the merchant company.

The soldiers and mercenaries merely chewed bread, dried meat, and whatever else they had packed.

The moment the knights finished eating, the caravan resumed its journey.

“Yaaawn.”

It was becoming difficult to suppress my sighs.

As Grand Chief, I had experienced more marches than I cared to remember during the alliance’s yearly expansion campaigns.

But marching through the Grimwood Mountains had never been this boring.

In those mountains, monsters could appear at any moment.

Every march carried the threat of ambush.

There was always tension.

Always danger.

Always some sense of excitement.

This?

Damn. This really brings back memories of military marches.

That was exactly how it felt.

The knights made it worse.

Any time the mercenaries became slightly too talkative, the knights glared at us as if they wanted to kill someone.

They reminded me of the sort of overbearing military supervisors who seemed personally offended by anyone enjoying themselves.

There was none of the romantic adventure I used to imagine in fantasy MMORPGs.

Wait.

Did those games ever actually have romantic journeys?

Before becoming a developer, I had been a game fanatic myself.

But now that I thought about it, whenever I played an RPG, I had usually been too busy completing quests and raising levels to appreciate anything resembling romance.

I had been a hopelessly efficiency-obsessed gamer.

After several hours of doing nothing but walking, pointless thoughts were clearly beginning to invade my mind.

Another few hours passed.

“We will camp here tonight.”

One of the knights gave the order as sunset began staining the sky.

“We expect to reach Betony City by tomorrow afternoon.”

Wow.

This is an excellent place to die.

After travelling for more than half a day, we had reached a forest.

The road was only wide enough for around two wagons to pass side by side.

Dense bushes and trees grew immediately beyond either edge.

The vegetation was smaller than what filled the Grimwood Mountains, but there was still more than enough cover for anyone trying to hide.

Camping between dense forests on both sides of a narrow road?

No one in the Grimwood Mountains would ever consider something this stupid.

“What an incredible choice of campsite.”

Apparently, I was not the only one thinking it.

Elin clicked her tongue in disbelief.

Burke and Guts remained silent, but their expressions said much the same thing.

“With this much military strength, they probably assume no one would dare attack.”

“Yeah, I suppose.”

We exchanged a few comments, ate a simple dinner, and began preparing to sleep.

“They assigned the watch rotations.”

Guts had gone over to the wagons as our representative.

He returned and quickly explained our schedule.

Once everything was ready, we settled down for the night.

Perhaps because the campsite felt so dangerously exposed, I never truly entered deep sleep.

Rustle.

The sound reached me sometime before dawn.

To my ears, it might as well have been thunder.

My eyes snapped open.

That came from far away.

If it had been close, I could have dismissed it as another mercenary turning over in his sleep.

But it had definitely come from inside the forest.

No normal animal would deliberately approach a large human camp at this hour while making that sort of careful noise.

There was clear hostility behind it.

I slowly raised my upper body, deliberately moving like someone who had simply awakened from an uncomfortable sleep.

“Everyone, wake up.”

I whispered so quietly that the words barely carried beyond our group.

Then I lightly nudged the others beside me.

“...Something wrong?”

Aside from Wiggins, they were all experienced mercenaries.

None panicked.

They kept their voices low.

“I think we’re about to have a fight.”

“Haa...”

Elin began subtly loosening her shoulders.

“They never show up when I’m bored during the day. Why do they always come when I’m trying to sleep?”

The rest of the group quietly stretched stiff muscles and reached for their weapons.

Their movements were subtle enough that someone watching from a distance would probably notice nothing unusual.

After our experience together in the forest, they seemed to trust my warning completely.

Guts finished preparing and glanced toward the others who had not noticed anything.

He opened his mouth, apparently intending to warn them.

Whoosh!

An arrow came flying from the bushes.

Thud.

“Ghk!”

Those sleeping soundly, along with several people supposedly standing watch while half asleep, collapsed before they even understood that they were under attack.

Fortunately, my group had already prepared.

None of us were hit.

“ENEMY ATTACK!”

Only then did one of the knights realise what was happening and roar a warning.

People who had been sleeping sprawled across the ground scrambled upright in confusion.

“ATTACK!”

Enemies burst from the forest.

“Aaagh!”

The attackers had seized the initiative with their ambush.

There were also many of them.

At least fifty.

But their overall quality did not appear particularly high.

“Hup!”

CRUNCH!

The mercenaries camped closest to the forest were slaughtered almost immediately.

One attacker charged toward us behind them.

I split him in two with a single swing of my axe.

“Backs together! Don’t fight alone!”

“Worry about yourself, old man!”

“I’ll protect Mr. Wiggins!”

Guts, Elin, and Burke shouted in turn.

Because we had prepared before the attack began, they handled the first wave without much trouble.

The enemies rushing us were, at best, around the level of ordinary soldiers.

Most wore wooden or leather armour reinforced with pieces of iron.

Bandits.

That was what they looked like.

“You filthy bandit vermin!”

The knights finally entered the battle.

Ordinary bandits had no hope of resisting trained knights.

Attackers began falling one after another.

What the hell is this?

The thought crossed my mind as I split a third bandit apart.

Their ambush had killed several ordinary soldiers and mercenaries.

But attacking a caravan guarded by five knights with nothing but bandits?

That was insanity.

“!”

Then, for the first time, someone blocked my axe.

An Aura User.

I was holding back to conceal my real strength, but anyone who could stop that attack so easily was clearly far beyond an ordinary bandit.

CLANG!

“?!”

Amusingly, the man who blocked my axe also looked slightly surprised.

I swung again.

He retreated and narrowly avoided Silvertusk.

CLANG!

“Ghk!”

He managed to block my third strike with his greatsword, though a grunt escaped him.

Tch.

At that moment, I noticed Guts’s party being driven backward.

They were all far more capable than ordinary soldiers.

Yet somehow, they were being overwhelmed.

There are more people like this mixed in with the bandits.

Apparently, this was not limited to one or two.

“Damn it!”

This was no longer a situation where concealing my strength made sense.

Surviving alone and then dealing with everyone myself would be troublesome.

More importantly, I could not let these people die.

They were valuable sources of information!

“Hraaah!”

I put real strength behind my next swing.

Even though his stance had partially collapsed, the man gritted his teeth and raised his greatsword to meet Silvertusk.

SLASH!

This time, my axe cleaved straight through the greatsword.

Then through the man’s upper body.

His eyes remained wide, filled with confusion he would never have time to resolve.

As long as I keep my magic hidden, it should be fine.

I abandoned the act of being a beginner Aura User.

Aura surged into Silvertusk.

“Hold on a little longer!”

Then I charged toward Guts and the others.

Chapter 228

The Romance of Travel

SLASH!

CRUNCH!

“Aaaagh!”

Once I began fighting with my true ability as an advanced Aura User, a road of blood opened in front of me.

“Wh-what the hell?!”

“An advanced Aura User?!”

The enemy who had been overwhelming Guts’s group lasted only two exchanges before I cleaved through both his weapon and body.

My companions stared at me in shock.

“I happened to gain some enlightenment during the fight just now.”

I gave them the most ridiculous excuse imaginable and immediately scanned the battlefield.

“!”

Something strange caught my attention.

There were plenty of ordinary bandits.

Some were attacking soldiers.

Others were being massacred by the knights.

But the section where the mercenaries had camped was different.

Aside from our group, almost everyone had been slaughtered.

“Ghk.”

Only one person remained alive and fighting desperately.

That guy.

It was the clean-looking young man we had noticed before the caravan departed.

The one who had looked like some noble young master travelling incognito.

And now that I examined the fight more closely, every single person attacking him was suspiciously strong.

“Hold your position here!”

I shouted at Guts’s group and moved to help the young man.

If he fell, all of those enemies would be free to attack us together.

Better to hit them from behind while their attention was still focused on him.

WHOOOSH!

I closed the distance almost instantly and swung Silvertusk with all my strength.

One of the men attacking the youth stepped in front of my axe.

CLANG!

“?!”

Silvertusk, saturated with aura, produced a strange resonant ring.

The man’s longsword shattered.

The man himself split apart immediately afterward.

“What?!”

“Damn it! Just delay him! We’re almost finished!”

Several of the fake bandits cried out in shock.

One man immediately began issuing orders.

He looked like their leader.

Two enemies broke away and moved toward me.

The remaining three continued pressing the young man.

The pair assigned to stop me did not attack recklessly.

Instead, they maintained distance, watching for openings and trying to waste time.

A fight where you keep your distance and stall?

What do these bastards think an orc warrior is?

“Hmph.”

I snorted and charged directly at one of them.

“Hup!”

The targeted man flinched when I abandoned any concern for defence and rushed him like an idiot.

He immediately retreated.

“Moron.”

Unfortunately for him, one of the men attacking the youth was directly behind him.

Only then did he realise he had trapped himself.

He raised his sword to block my axe.

SLASH!

Aura combined with Silvertusk was simply unfair.

Once again, I cleaved through weapon and wielder together.

“Die!”

The second man, whom I had ignored, thrust his longsword toward my side.

Because I had deliberately neglected my defence, completely avoiding the strike was impossible.

But there was something he did not know.

“Ghk?!”

The leather armour beneath my disguise had been made from the hide of a Twin-Headed Ogre.

It could not perfectly stop the sword of an Aura User.

But it was more than enough to turn a blow that should have pierced straight through my body into a deep cut instead.

I grinned.

The man who had successfully stabbed through my armour found my right fist waiting for him.

BAM!

My aura-covered fist slammed directly into his face.

His skull caved inward.

After eliminating the two men with that reckless exchange, I turned toward the remaining enemies surrounding the youth.

“What the hell are you?!”

One of the fake bandits narrowly avoided Silvertusk and shouted as though personally offended by my existence.

“Secret.”

That was one thing I absolutely could not tell him.

“You bastard!”

Apparently believing I was mocking him, the man charged with bloodshot eyes.

But I had fought Drakes and even a Wyvern Lord at close range.

There was no reason for me to feel pressured by a mere intermediate Aura User.

I calmly read the path of his longsword.

Then I swung Silvertusk to meet it.

Ignoring the advantages of superior strength and a superior weapon would have been idiotic.

CLANG!

The moment Silvertusk collided with the longsword, the blade shattered.

THUD!

I drove a full-force kick into the unarmed man’s stomach.

There was a sound almost like a ball bursting.

His body flew across the clearing and slammed into a tree.

Then it went limp.

Like a corpse.

No.

He was already dead.

After finishing another fake bandit in much the same fashion, only one man remained focused on the young noble.

The two of them were fighting spectacularly.

Unlike my simple, brutally efficient axe style, both used intricate swordsmanship filled with refined technique.

Hummm.

Their swords produced distinct resonant sounds as they clashed.

Both appeared to be advanced Aura Users.

I had already come this far.

Standing aside now and telling them to settle the rest between themselves would have been ridiculous.

So I attacked the fake bandit leader.

The man had been evenly matched with the youth.

The moment I joined the fight, his defence began to collapse.

THUD!

SLASH!

In the end, he died beneath my axe and the young man’s sword, leaving behind only a resentful stare.

“Haa... haa...”

The youth had driven his sword into the fake bandit leader’s heart.

He stood there breathing heavily.

It had been too dark to notice earlier, but his entire body was covered in wounds.

Blood soaked his clothes.

I caught him before he collapsed.

Then, while supporting him, I leaned close and asked the question I had been wanting to ask for some time.

“Who exactly are you?”

It was a line I had never imagined I would be the one asking after entering human territory.