CH 196

Chapter 196

Those Who Take Each Other's Hands : Three Dragon Knights, Part 3 — Experience As A Mercenary

Translated by KaiesV

Edited by KaiesV

「I’ve missed this.」

「Me too! You two seem to be… doing well.」

They were two people who hadn’t changed. Lexus may die soon, though.

「Wait a minute. I’ll finish him off now, then we’ll have a nice long drink.」

「He–He–Hey!?」

Lexus is not happy, but it seems that Rui has the advantage in terms of position, and the sword gradually moves closer to Lexus.

「No! My life’s in a pinch!」

「I’ll at least listen to your will, okay?」

「What nonsense are you doing, you people?」

Suddenly, they saw a woman standing at the entrance of the tavern. She was dressed in brown leather armor and her long brown hair was side-tailed in a knightly style. She was about the height as Aerial. She was not a conspicuously beautiful woman, but she was very fearless with a sharp and tight expression. From her calm atmosphere, they guessed that she was older than Alfiris.

「Amarina… -san, you came.」

「Yeah, I’m done scouting. More importantly, Rui, I told you to stop calling me that『-san,』didn’t I?」

「No, this is an old habit of mine.」

「You’re still as uptight as ever. Besides, isn’t it about time you let Lexus go? You’re causing trouble in the store.」

「Muh…」

Ruu looked around and sure enough, the customers had either fled the store or were shivering in the corner of the store. The manager also pleaded with her with his eyes, begging her not to destroy the store.

「We’re so poor, we’re going to lose our lodging if we keep this up, okay?」

「Tch. Your life is saved, Lexus.」

「Hafuu～」

Lexus takes a deep breath as Rui puts her sword away. Alfiris watched them with a twinkle in her eye. Suddenly, the woman named Amarina looks at Alfiris.

「Rui, do you know her?」

「Yeah, this girl’s name is Alfiris…」

Rui explained the progress in the forest of Dulcass. Then Amarina nodded her head and looked at Alfiris in a curious way.

「I see. It’s quite a feat that you’re still alive after fighting with our troops.」

「Ah, thank you…」

「I didn’t introduce myself yet. I am Amarina. I belong to Vandal Valthus Blackhawk’s 0th squad, and I’m a dragon knight. Nice to meet you.」

「Oh, it’s my pleasure. My name is Alfiris. Everyone calls me Alfie.」

Alfiris and Amarina shake hands.

「I see there’s also something called the 0th Squad.」

「Yes, it’s a unit that works with Valthus. The captain, however, is a windbag, so he goes off on his own. My job is to find him.」

「Heh…」

「What? Was there something strange?」

「No, no. I had more of an image of Valthus as a seamless, scary person.」

Rui and Amarina look at each other.

「He’s rather full of gaps.」

「Yes, a strange man.」

「I–Is that so?」

The statue of the swordsman, said to be the strongest on the continent, crumbled noisily in Alfiris’ mind. Afterwards, all three of them were invited to join Alfiris and her allies for a drink at their table. They recalled that when Alfiris and her allies had lent her a hand before, they had promised to buy her a drink. When they made the offer, Rui gladly accepted, and they are now drinking together. Only Lexus was too willing to take it, so he jumped straight to Miranda and tried to hug her, and was carefully lynched by Rui, Amarina and Miranda. The final touch, of course, was Lisa.

So, in the end, Gwendolf was the only man at the table. Whether he should be called a man or not may not be certain.

And the almost exclusively female banquet was a lot of fun.

「Hoh, so am I right in understanding that Aerial is the sister, this Gwen is the husband, and Lanna is the mistress?」

「Wrong, wrong! Rui, that’s wrong!」

「I’m fine with that, but…」

「Lanna, don’t complicate the story either!」

「Well, I guess you must be unmarried with children. It’s not easy for a young woman like you, is it?」

「Even you Amarina! Somebody do something about this～」

Well, they might say that the windfall to Alfiris just got stronger.

Vandal Valthus Blackhawk, to which Rui and others belong, is not receiving any major requests at the moment, so each of them is free to move on their own. In fact, people hear that many of them are actually working with the captain. Since the 0th Squad has been on the road a lot lately, Amarina is being allowed to move around as long as she’s not left alone. So, it seems that Amarina offered to accompany them since she is good friends with Rui in the other corps there.

Then, Miranda suddenly had an idea and asked Rui and Amarina a question.

「Hey, hey, both of you. I’d like to ask you two who belong to the most powerful mercenary group on the continent.」

「Hmm?」

「I doubt to be the strongest, but we’ll answer that question if we’re good enough.」

Amarina responds amiably.

「I wonder what a mercenary group would need?」

「That’s a very vague question.」

「What do you mean?」

Miranda hesitated for a moment, but Alfiris signaled to Miranda that she could speak with her eyes, so she recounted the whole story. The story surprised them, but they weren’t completely unrelated either. Rui has already defeated Huge Treant with them, and, unbeknownst to Miranda, Blackhawks has been going around defeating Archfiends until recently.

Hearing this story, Amarina ponders.

「That’s an interesting story… I’ll have to talk to Valthus about it.」

「Sure. Maybe he can come up with something. It’s just not in our wheelhouse. So, Alfiris is going to start a mercenary company?」

Rui looked at Alfiris with serious eyes. Alfiris nodded firmly. Louis felt the firm determination in her expression and her face involuntarily broke into a smile.

「…You’ve come to look good in a short time, Alfiris. Looks like you’ve been blessed with good friends and good fights.」

「I don’t know if it’s a good fight, but I think we’re in good company.」

「Umu, it’s good that you think so. But if you’re talking about mercenaries, you’d be better off asking Lexus there than us.」

Rui turns her attention to Lexus, who is passed out, tied to a pillar because he is dangerous.

「We were both in the military until relatively recently. If you’re looking for a mercenary background, this Lexus has been around longer.」

「Really?」

「Yes. This guy is usually just a pervert, but he’s a top-notch mercenary. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be walking around with this pervert. I blame it on the accident and kills him.」

Rui says something noisy, but she guessed it’s a daily occurrence between these two. She then drinks out of a bottle of liquor and suddenly throws it at Lexus. There was no time for Alfiris and the others to think it was dangerous, but Lexus, who was supposed to have been knocked unconscious by the difficulty behind him, grabbed the bottle with his hand.

「Miss, that’s dangerous.」

「Because you’re forever pretending to be knocked out.」

「No way…」

How did he cut the rope? Alfiris’ question was on her face, and Lexus showed her the stocking knife he had hidden in his sleeve.

「That’s no good, you have to make sure you have the right weapon when you restrain me.」

「Ah, okay. I’ll do that from now on.」

「It’s all right, Alfiris. You don’t need to restrain him, just send him to hell.」

「That’s cruel, Miss!」

Lexus protested, but Rui ignored him.

「More importantly, you heard what I just said, aren’t you? Do you have any advice for Alfiris?」

「Just that～?」

「You’re buying me drinks and dinner, aren’t you?」

「Hmmm, can’t be helped. Well, here’s a piece of advice from me.」

Lexus becomes a little more serious.

「I’ve been a mercenary for almost 20 years now, and the most important thing when creating a mercenary group is,『Can I trust this leader?』」

「Trust…」

Alfiris makes a face that says she has heard something unexpected.

「Yes. Of course there are other important things to consider. Like what kind of commissions the mercenary group will take, where they will be based, how big they will be, and so on. But the most important thing is whether or not the leader can be trusted. After all, mercenaries are a group of people who live for the day without principles. So we don’t want to die following idiots. If I follow this person, will I get out alive, will I make money, will he help me when I am in danger, or will he be worth dying with? These things must be important to the leader.」

「I see. So how is Valthus to you, Lexus?」

Alfiris asked an honest question, to which Lexus also answered seriously. This came as a surprise to Rui.

「In my case? Hmmm…… I lost in a single combat to him, so I’d like to get back at him someday, and it fits the criteria I mentioned earlier… and I think he’s more interesting than that.」

「Interesting?」

「Yes, Valthus goes to many places, and in any case, his behavior is unreadable. There are times when he does things that, even in my opinion, are reckless, or when he disappears suddenly from the battlefield, or when he abruptly throws his work aside. But he hits all the right spots. Some time ago, on the night of a successful pursuit battle, he suddenly told everyone in the group to pack up their belongings and leave the army. Then, not long after that, the army we were in was wiped out in a night attack. Perhaps he could sense the unique atmosphere of the battlefield. So we’ll always be around, we’ll never get bored, we’ll have fun, we’ll survive. I’ve been around a lot of battlefields and fought under a lot of different commanders, but I think Valthus is the only one that seems to do that.」

「Heh～」

Seeing Lexus talk so happily, it was clear that he has some kind of respect for Valthus, the leader of the group. Alfiris knows that Lexus isn’t the only one, and she would love to be respected by such a person someday.

Later, when Alfiris got up from her seat to do her business, Rui suddenly opened her mouth. The conversation was lively and no one was listening to their conversation. Lisa was also sleepy and somewhat down.

In the middle of all this, Rui and Lexus are talking.