Chapter 138: Chapter 138

“Show off your skills from now on! Your pay will depend on your skill, so do your best!”

Inside the massive hall, the lined-up mercenaries swallowed hard at the recruitment officer’s words.

Not long ago, rumors had spread that Pendia’s young duke was recruiting mercenaries at Meln Port for the war against Ruman.

Despite the Queen of Pendia being excommunicated and the duke being an Altoan, many people gathered.

After all, the enemy was Ruman, who were also New Faith believers, and above all, word had spread far and wide that the pay was generous.

Religion aside, for mercenaries, whoever paid the most money was their master.

One of those who had come was among them.

Pen, once a member, errand boy, and gatekeeper of an Altoan acrobat troupe, swallowed hard as he stared at the door deep inside the hall.

“Phew…”

His purpose in coming here was not to earn money doing mercenary work.

His true objective was to meet his employer, the young Duke of Pendia, Shan Barendil.

Several years ago, Pen had met a fellow kinsman while performing near Vito City.

A boy with a small build and brightly glowing green eyes.

With his hunched shoulders making him look like a kitten full of fear and wariness toward the world, Pen and the acrobat troupe members had doted on the boy like family.

Yet that kitten-like boy was, surprisingly, the possessor of tremendous combat abilities.

How chillingly impressive it had been when, to help them out of a tight spot, he had slain over a dozen soldiers without proper equipment and clashed blows with a knight.

Thanks to that, when the boy became renowned years later as Pendia’s strongest knight, Pen was not surprised.

He had merely felt proud as a fellow kinsman and old acquaintance, thinking that he had finally made it.

He could not dare try to leech off Shan, who had become a legendary knight, as they had once joked about.

Even if the sun was warm, if one approached too closely, wouldn’t one be burned to a crisp?

If a mere wretched acrobat troupe approached someone who had risen to the rank of duke just to pick up scraps, their heads might be chopped off.

Of course, the boy he had met back then was by no means of such a character, but time, power, and war always changed people.

But right now, Pen was desperate enough that he had to try approaching even if it meant taking such a risk.

“He’s out, it’s Duke Velakar!”

“Is that man the God of War of Pendia…”

Turning his gaze at a mercenary’s whisper, Pen was shocked by Shan’s appearance, seeing him for the first time in years.

The shaggy-haired boy he remembered was not there.

Standing half a head taller than the soldiers beside him, his agile yet well-built physique evoked a feline beast of prey.

On top of that, his baby fat had vanished, leaving soft features and distinct facial contours, transforming him into a handsome man.

If not for his eyes that drooped slightly at the ends, making him look gentle, Pen would not have recognized him as the same person.

Behind him, about twenty well-armed Altoan soldiers glared expressionlessly at the mercenaries.

It was the first time in his life he had seen Altoans gathered in such large numbers while so well-armed.

“Next, Pen!”

After blankly staring at the sight for a moment, Pen quickly ran over at the recruitment officer’s call and demonstrated his staff-swinging skills and sling-stone throwing that he had learned over time.

In truth, among the mercenaries gathered here, his skill was clearly below average.

In the first place, Pen was an errand boy of an acrobat troupe, not a warrior, and the work he had done over the last few years was far from combat.

Hoping for something special at the appearance of a rare Altoan, the other mercenaries quickly lost interest.

Soon offered the pay of the lowest rank, Pen signed the contract and stepped back.

All the while, Shan did not pay him any mind at all.

His gaze had merely turned in his direction a few times.

‘Did he forget me? Well, it can’t be helped, but…’

For a duke and Lord Protector of a nation, a wretched connection from his childhood was likely something he would want to forget.

Or perhaps he might not even remember it at all.

Even so, Pen did not dare dash over to plead or ask someone to pass along a message.

Seeing knights, who could crush Pen to death like a bug, respectfully bowing their heads in front of Shan and calling him Your Grace, he could not help but feel that way.

Just as his shoulders drooped and he sighed, someone approached him with heavy footsteps.

It was an Altoan soldier whose impressive feature was a hawk-like curved beak in place of a mouth.

“Are you Mr. Pen?”

“Yes? Ah, yes. That’s right…”

“His Grace Duke Velakar has summoned you. Please come with me.”

Surprised by the soldier’s words, Pen quickly stood up.

The surrounding mercenaries looked at them with wide eyes.

A moment later, Pen followed the soldier into a room inside the hall where mercenaries were received.

Sitting there was Shan, whom he had seen from afar just moments ago.

“I have brought him, Your Grace.”

“Good work. You may step back.”

“Glory to Pendia!”

The soldier, who saluted solemnly, left the room without meddling about whether a noble person should be alone with an unknown fellow.

Indeed, what fool would tell the strongest knight in Pendia, no, the strongest knight in the Arman Alliance…’it is dangerous, so keep a guard’?

Once watching eyes vanished, Shan, who had maintained a solemn expression, smirked and spoke.

“It’s been a long time, Mr. Pen. It’s good to see you like this.”

It was an informal tone that was hard to believe coming from a Duke of Pendia to a mere Altoan wanderer.

Hearing this, tears burst from Pen’s eyes for some reason.

While Shan was flustered by his sudden weeping, Pen quickly bowed his head and spoke.

“I-It’s an honor, Your Grace. This humble man begs of you, please save my family…”

*

After calming down to some extent, the sobbing Pen explained his situation.

After parting ways with Shan, they had wandered southern Libert as mentioned before, earning a living by performing as they always had.

Fortunately, earnings were quite good.

The southerners who had escaped the flames of civil war were wealthy, and the troupe knew how to put on quite decent performances while utilizing their physical characteristics.

The problem began around the year before last, when they caught a terrible lung disease while coming out of a performance in a certain region.

“A lung disease?”

“…Yes. It rapidly drained physical strength, a horrific disease where coughing up blood occurred with even the slightest movement. I heard it was an endemic disease of that region.”

It was a disease that could be fully cured by paying for a priest’s treatment, but the problem was the fact that they were Altoans.

The Old Faith priests, who had come to hate Altoans even more ever since a powerful Altoan knight broke the Crusader Order in Pendia to the east, refused to treat the acrobat troupe.

Fortunately, Pen endured the disease without major aftereffects, but the others were not so lucky.

Pen’s parents, Dwarf Boldot and Sharp-Toothed Kete, failed to overcome the disease and died, while his uncle Josue and younger sister Debbie came to cough up blood with even slight exertion due to the aftereffects of the lung disease.

Fortunately, Roxy, the troupe leader and uncle, suffered slightly lesser aftereffects, so the two sold their acrobatic props and wagon, settled on the outskirts of a town, and eked out a living doing day labor while caring for the two sick ones.

Naturally, it was difficult for them, as Altoans in the land of Libert, to receive proper treatment.

Being cheated out of pay after working was commonplace, and even the meager wages they received were often stolen by town thugs.

Although Roxy merely had somewhat unique hair color, settling down in one place rather than moving constantly meant that rumors were bound to spread.

With two sick people and little money, it was difficult to wander as they used to.

While barely eking out a living in such poverty, news that reached Pen was the visit of Duke Velakar, Shan.

Hearing that mercenaries were being recruited in Meln City, a three-day walk away, Pen sprinted for a day and a half until his heart felt like bursting.

Hoping to somehow speak to him and at least raise enough money to go to Pendia to treat the two sick ones.

“…I see.”

Listening to the story, Shan let out a soft sigh.

Because he could once again realize how difficult it was to live as an Altoan in the land of Libert.

Miracles, the absolute solution that could cure all kinds of diseases capable of snatching life at any moment, were a grace not granted to the devil’s race.

Had it been in Pendia at least, they could have received treatment from a New Faith priest.

Of course, that was also assuming they had money.

“I’ll prepare a carriage, so let me head out right away. Which village is it in?”

“Yes? R-Right now?”

“Of course. From what I hear, time seems to be of the essence.”

Never imagining that His Grace the Duke would step up directly, Pen burst into tears once more and expressed his gratitude over and over.

Busy as he was recruiting mercenaries for the war, even giving a few coins would have been deeply appreciated.

Visiting the castle of Count of Meln, Shan asked Gillian to lend him a carriage and informed Roden that he would be absent for a short while.

Naturally, Roden, unaware of the situation, was bewildered, but upon hearing the explanation, he nodded with a firm face.

“Go ahead.”

Having known them himself, albeit not for long, hearing the story made him feel uneasy as well.

Had he not had work to do here, he would have gone along with them.

“Wow…”

Boarding the carriage, Pen let out an exclamation as he looked at the exceedingly luxurious interior.

From plush seats made of unknown materials to a frame crafted from high-grade ebony and glass windows.

For a mere acrobat troupe member, it was a setup he would never have had the chance to even look at, let alone ride in, his entire life.

Sitting opposite him, Shan quietly watched his reaction before speaking.

“If Arwin were here, I would have just given Pen a ride and ridden together… Ah, Arwin is my horse. I left her in Pendia for now.”

Since most of the fighting in Ruman would likely consist of naval battles or sieges, there had been no need to bring Arwin along.

Loading horses onto ships was a huge source of stress in itself, and there was even a risk of losing the horse along with the ship if something went wrong.

At Shan’s words, Pen nodded.

“I’ve heard a lot about her! A horse that runs as fast as lightning, right…”

“Is Arwin famous in Libert too? Well, she really is fast. There probably isn’t one like her even in Horais.”

As they conversed so casually, the tension gradually left Pen’s stiff shoulders.

Because he now perceived the young man before him not as the strongest knight in the world, but as that boy from back then who had simply grown a few years older.

A single day was enough to reach Hoof Village, where the former acrobat troupe family resided.

The ordinary villagers of southern Libert were thrown into confusion by the sudden arrival of the carriage and cavalrymen.

Soon, as a familiar figure stepped out from within, this confusion reached its peak.

“I-Isn’t that Pen?”

“Why is that fellow coming out of a place like that…”

How on earth could a mere Altoan ride in such a luxurious carriage and bring soldiers along?

Those who were wondering gasped as they saw the young man who stepped down from the carriage next.

Though they did not know who he was, he clearly looked like someone of no ordinary status at first glance.

Leaving the villagers’ gazes behind, Shan and Pen entered a small cabin built in the mountains.

In a house far too cramped for four people to live together, two sick patients lay coughing.

“P-Pen, is that you?”

“Yes, Uncle. I brought someone who will cure your illness.”

At his nephew’s reply, Josue shed tears without realizing it.

Having heard that Pen had suddenly disappeared without a word, he had inwardly thought that Pen had run away.

That he had been unable to bear nursing his consumptive uncle and younger sister and had fled…

Yet he never expected that Pen had somehow brought someone to treat them.

“Did you… do something strange by any chance?”

“No, so you don’t need to worry.”

As an unfamiliar voice answered, Josue finally realized that someone was standing behind Pen.

Though it was daytime, in the cabin where not even a proper light was lit, green eyes glowed softly.

“A-Ah…!”

Having heard much of Shan’s renown, Josue struggled in shock to sit up.

But Pen held his uncle down and spoke.

“Stay still, Uncle. It’s alright.”

“B-But, the Duke…”

Passing by Josue, who was reacting almost frantically, Shan looked down at Debbie, who lay still.

The butterfly wings glittering softly in the dark were the same as before, but starved and emaciated, with sunken cheeks, her past neat appearance was hard to find.

Wondering if she might have passed away, he gently placed his hand on her forehead, and sensing his presence, she opened her eyes with effort.

Showing a surprised expression upon seeing Shan, she smiled and spoke.

“…The knight with pretty eyes.”

At the title she had used back then, Shan smiled despite himself.

*

“For now, their condition has improved, Your Grace. However, because the illness was so severe, a longer period of treatment will likely be needed for a complete recovery. It would be even better to combine it with medicinal treatment if possible.”

“Thank you for your hard work. There won’t be any issue traveling to Meln or taking a ship from Meln to Pendia, right?”

“Yes. That much will be fine.”

Listening to the military chaplain’s words, Shan let out a sigh of relief.

Though he had the confidence to kill whoever in the world became his enemy, on the contrary, he possessed no talent for saving lives.

By nature, the world was created such that breaking things was far easier than creating them; raising a single person into an adult required twenty years, but killing them took merely a second to swing a single sword.

In that sense, it was now time to do what he was good at.

Breaking things.

Of course, there was no need to do it himself.

They were not people worth his effort, and besides, he now had many hands and feet to act in his stead.

A cavalryman who had escorted him from Meln bowed respectfully and spoke.

“I have gathered them all, Your Grace.”

The residents of Hoof Village huddled together with anxious faces, whispering amongst themselves.

The leader of the suddenly arrived cavalrymen seemed to visit the Altoans’ cabin in a corner of the village, and then his subordinates forcibly gathered the people into the square.

They did not dare resist.

They were clearly well-armed elite soldiers at a glance, and rumor had it that some of them were even soldiers from Meln City down south.

Although this vicinity was not under Count of Meln’s direct domain, it was a place heavily influenced by his authority.

If one dared cross such a great lord, even a noble would find it hard to escape unscathed.

A moment later, a noble youth with black hair and green eyes looked at them and spoke.

“I hear my friends have been indebted to this village for a long time.”

At him calling the Altoans ‘friends,’ the faces of several villagers turned pale white.

Because they clearly remembered what they had done to those strangers residing in the corner of the village.

Not only had they cheated them out of pay, but had they not committed all sorts of outrages, such as beating them out of boredom or extorting what little money they had?

Had that girl they coddled not been consumptive, the village vagrants would have long since taken advantage of her.

Shan looked down at the cornered villagers and let out a soft sigh.

Folk that brought to mind the people of Willow Village from the past…

Back then, they had been so hateful and terrifying, yet looking at them now, they felt like nothing more than trivial bugs.

Ones he could lightly crush with a single finger.

Not that he intended to recklessly cut them down and kill them as he might have in his childhood.

For he had grown mature enough to know that persecuting others simply for being Altoans was not a capital offense.

It would suffice for them to receive retribution commensurate with what they had committed.

Those who stole property with property, and those who used violence with violence.

“Confiscate all property from those who did not pay them their proper wages. For what cannot be taken, burn everything down to their houses. And beat those who struck them until they are crippled.”

Confiscating all property or crippling them shortly after the spring wheat harvest was, in a rural village like this, practically telling them to die.

At this, one of the village elders shouted in desperation.

“W-We are people under the protection of Sir Esset! If he finds out about this…”

“Who is Sir Esset?”

At Shan’s question, a soldier from Meln answered.

“He is a knight under Baron Gueretroy, a vassal of His Excellency Count of Meln, Your Grace.”

“Then there is no problem. I received Gillian’s consent that I might cause a little commotion.”

Had Shan punished them back when he had nothing, he would have immediately been wanted as a criminal.

Indeed, in Leaf Village in northeastern Libert, Shan had reportedly been wanted as a criminal for several years before becoming famous.

But now that he was a Duke of Pendia, he possessed the power and authority to brush off such a trivial matter without concern.

Was this not why people strived to succeed in life?

At the sight of the soldiers bowing to him and calling him Your Grace, the villagers’ faces turned dark with despair.