The blood was roaring in Salume's ears. Though all she was doing was sitting behind Jyrki, it was more than enough for her to understand the atmosphere of the battlefield. The first day had been terrifying, and she'd closed her eyes several times. She'd stopped doing that on the second day, but she was still scared of the carnage around her.
Today, though, Salume felt relaxed as Jyrki carried her through the bloodshed.
"Hey, Salume, the enemy archers are greeting us all in a line. Take a look," Jyrki said.
When Salume looked to the front, she saw the aforementioned enemy archers, standing in two rows. "Um, they're two platoons... No, it's probably a single company."
There were five in the front and five in the back. Next to them stood a woman, likely their commander. Jyrki occasionally talked to Salume like this to teach her about the battlefield. For example, she knew that if the soldiers were able to properly hold a formation against an ambush at night, they probably had a skilled leader. And that wasn't the only thing she'd learned over the past three days, of course.
"You see that chick wearin' the different armor? They're commanders and high up the ladder. So as long as we kill them, we'll end up with the advantage."
The archers in the front released their arrows, but Lumia smacked more than half away with her lance. Any she missed, Marx deflected with his sword. None of the arrows made it to Jyrki or Salume.
"Here ya go!" Jyrki was constantly shooting arrows of fire. He'd already emptied his quiver and exchanged it for the spare one that Salume had been holding.
Salume's job was observing the workplace, as well as holding on to and handing them their supplies. She saw the archers in the back row fire their arrows as well. They were much closer than before, but Lumia, like before, fended them off.
"Wow..." Salume whispered.
Their combat skills were so impressive, she was emotionally moved. Marx covered for arrows that Lumia couldn't get to, while Jyrki continued to shoot his fire arrows with calm precision. They all trusted each other, and the foundation of that trust was built on an understanding of their skills and techniques.
I want to catch up with them! Salume fervently wished.
Before the archers in the front line could shoot their arrows again, Lumia set off a Flashbang. The archers covered their eyes, groaning in pain at the spell's effect. So this is the real way to use magic. Lumia had taken a spell that could only create light and elevated it into a weapon.
No one had ever thought of using magic in warfare before, as it was previously only seen as a way of making life more convenient. Spells were all weak in power and took time to learn, so picking up swordplay was far more useful. That had been the general consensus on magic.
But as an example of Moon Blossom's innovation, Jyrki's fire magic was adept at creating fire arrows, eliminating the need to carry torches to set arrowheads ablaze. Magic was convenient, and with a little outside-the-box thinking, it could be convenient in war as well.
"I'll let one of you kill the commander!" Lumia exclaimed. With a sweep of her lance, she threw the archers aside and cleared a path.
Aside from magic, they were proficient in a variety of other weapons as well. Though their expertise was in ambushes, they each had enough skill to face down their enemies in a head-on fight. That was what it was to be a soldier-mage. Salume thought they were the coolest people she'd ever seen.
"Then I shall," Marx said. In the next instant, his horse galloped forward, and as soon as he passed by the commander's side, he beheaded her in the blink of an eye.
Amazing... These people are truly amazing! The commander's head was still flying through the air when the swell of emotion passed through Salume.
Their eyes met. The commander had been a beautiful woman with long black hair. But now, her life was over. She might have had people important to her, and goals she wanted to accomplish. A mercenary's job was to end people, stealing lives in exchange for money. Salume felt a little guilty, but this, too, would eventually pass. She would get used to the feeling of seeing people die. And once Salume started to kill people herself, she would get used to that as well.
Ahh, I see, Salume thought. So that's what the boss meant when she said that there were only dead ends for us in this life. Death will become our daily routine until the day it becomes my turn.
***
"Teresa..." Matias stopped chasing after Moon Blossom and got off his horse. "Teresa..." The head of Matias's trusted vice captain had become split from her body. He gently picked it up and embraced it. "I can't believe that we lost someone...as amazing as you...in a war as foolish as this..."
Though she had not been on the level of a hero candidate, she had been a strong, wise, and fair woman. The surviving archers gave their reports with looks of regret.
"They used light to blind us... Vice Captain Teresa never even had the chance to fight them."
"Yes... Yes, I can imagine. That is the only way you would've been killed without at least buying us some time."
Matias was crying. It had been a long time since he'd done so, but he simply couldn't hold back his frustration. He could've forgiven Moon Blossom if they had killed Teresa in a proper fight. However, they'd attacked at night, set fire to the camp, and used light to blind the soldiers. They didn't fight with a warrior's pride. All they did was run around and wreck the Therbaen encampment. The soldiers had been tired from the battles during the day, and Moon Blossom had murdered them, relishing in the violence the entire time.
"I won't ever forgive...those monsters..." Matias growled.
All of Moon Blossom's military accomplishments were lies, built up through their underhanded night attacks. He had to destroy them. They weren't just a weapon that King Arnia chose to wield for his country. They were poison. Matias knew that mercenaries did dirty jobs no one else wanted to do, but would normal mercenaries really go this far? As he looked at the burning remnants of his camp, Matias knew that they could couldn't keep up the fighting for much longer.
***
A shiver went down Lumia's spine. She was terrified, and she knew that Jyrki and Marx likely felt the same. Since Salume had joined Moon Blossom only recently, she didn't understand what was so horrifying about the sight that greeted them.
"Why are you here?" Lumia asked.
They had finished their night attack on the Therbaen encampment, but right when they returned to the Arnian one, they saw standing before them a familiar young girl. Lumia and the others were on horseback, so they were looking down at the girl while she stared up at them. Her face was stretched in a smile, and her eyes were sparkling with delight.
She looked every inch like a child who had just received a new toy. Someone who didn't know any better might think she was a sweet and innocent little girl. However, that would be a costly mistake.
"Something very interesting happened. We'll be able to use it as a Plan C. Think of it as your reinforcements. It was such opportune timing that if a god exists in this world, he undoubtedly handed this toy to me with the intention of me using it."
Asura Lyona, the leader of the mercenary group Moon Blossom, had never once been an "innocent little girl." She was the very personification of malice.
"I have a bad feeling about this," Lumia muttered.
As the one who'd raised Asura, Lumia had quite a few regrets. She'd met Asura when Asura was three, and already there were more than a few things wrong with her head. But she wished that at the very least, Asura could've grown up into a slightly more normal person. The only thing that Lumia could do was keep watch so that she didn't devolve into a senseless mass murderer.
"Are there any days...when we don't have bad feelings?" Iina said from Asura's right-hand side, tilting her head slightly. On Asura's left stood Reko.
"From a triumphant return to a one-way ticket to hell..." Jyrki sighed.
"I feel despair akin to watching a peaceful country destroyed in a single night," Marx said with a shake of his head.
"Why are you all always so pessimistic?" Asura complained, her hands on her hips. "I swear, this is a very interesting development, okay? I guarantee it."
"It appears you delivered a heavy blow to those Therbaens today as well." Teropekka Branner, the general of the Arnian army, approached Lumia and the others to greet them.
"Yes, I suppose. We did quite a bit of damage," Lumia replied. She looked back towards the Therbaen encampment, which was still burning from Jyrki's fire arrows.
But it wasn't enough. They hadn't caused sufficient damage to force a retreat. If Lumia and the others didn't hurry and get them to leave, then Asura would kill the hero, or at least die trying. The outcome didn't matter, since both would be the absolute worst scenario imaginable.
"Don't be so humble, Lumia," Asura said. "Even from here, we can tell that you created a hellscape on their side."
"I'm truly glad we hired you. I even dare to hope that we might win at this rate."
Teropekka was the person who'd first hired Moon Blossom. He was a man of around forty-five years old, and his salt-and-pepper goatee suited him. With his graying hair pushed back and his muscular build, he gave off a dignified impression.
"You hold on to that hope, General." Asura smiled.
"Yes, I think I shall. Now then, I'm going to go get some rest."
"You coulda just forgotten about us and caught some Zs, gramps," Jyrki said.
"Humph. I'm not old enough to be called 'gramps' yet," Teropekka snorted. He then returned to his tent.
"Now then, let's talk business." After Asura said that, Lumia got off her horse. Seeing her do so, Jyrki, Salume, and Marx followed suit. "Do you remember Punti?"
"Punti?" Lumia echoed. It was a familiar name, but she couldn't quite place where she'd heard it.
"Hey, isn't that the hero candidate who said he wanted to meet the boss?" Jyrki said.
"The one I was dragging?" Marx asked.
"Oh...the one whose balls I kicked in." Iina nodded.
"Ahh," said Lumia. "I guess we did meet someone like that." She hadn't cared about Punti at all, so she didn't remember anything beyond what the other members of Moon Blossom detailed.
"I heard that someone's been looking for us," Asura explained. "The Arnians told me where he was. And who did I see when I went and checked it out? Our dear friend, Punti."
"Oh, really? So? What's up with him?" Lumia asked. She didn't understand what he had to do with anything.
"I heard that he was a hero candidate, so I thought I'd get rid of him if he was a threat. But since he came all the way to enemy territory, I figured I should check him out just in case."
"How did you do that?"
"Hmm, good question, Marx. Let me cut straight to the chase: I asked the boy king. As a country with enemies on all sides, Arnia must have sent spies to other nations, right? There should be a lot of agents in Therbae in particular, since they're at war."
"I see." Lumia nodded. "Arnia definitely would have information on key members of an opposing faction. So you had him give you intel on Punti?"
"That's right." Asura chuckled. She looked like a child enjoying a game of Twenty Questions.
"Isn't stuff like that usually confidential or whatever?"
"Of course, Jyrki, it was obviously confidential intel. But do you really think I'd back down just because someone told me I couldn't access it? I told the boy king, 'If my plan succeeds and I kill the hero, I'll ask you to display your asshole to me. But if you give me what I want, then I'll reconsider.' He didn't look too happy about it, but he gave me the information I wanted."
"You seriously...blackmailed the king of a country...?" Lumia staggered backwards, looking faint. She surely would've fallen over if Marx hadn't hurriedly held her up from behind.
"Vice Captain, please get a hold of yourself. This isn't the first time the boss has done this, right?"
"I'd never wanna be the vice cap'n..."
"Mama...your job is so difficult..."
"Boss, you sure do what you want."
"That's so cool of you."
"Salume, Reko, no," Lumia said, recovering. "Do not try to imitate her. Our boss is rotten to the core."
"I'm not going to refute that, but what a thing to say. Anyway, can we get back to the topic at hand?" At Asura's question, the assembled members of Moon Blossom nodded. "I couldn't stop laughing after I read what was in Punti's file. That's why I got in contact with him under the guise of an information broker. He's going to come here tomorrow and when he does, I want you to duel him, Lumia."
"Huh? Why do I have to duel him? No way. Why don't you do it?"
"This is part of a mission, my deputy. Therefore, this is an order. I want you to duel him tomorrow. Now, repeat that back to me."
"I'll...duel with Punti tomorrow."
The rule between them was that if Asura gave an order, then Lumia had to follow it, no matter how much she disliked it. Asura normally didn't care how much her mercenaries talked back at her or insulted her. She was very tolerant towards opposing opinions during missions as well. However, the one thing she couldn't stand for was disobedience on the job.
If anyone refused her orders, she'd put them through so much hell that they'd wish they were dead, then hammer obedience and loyalty back inside them. That was the way she did things. Even Lumia, who'd raised her and taught her how to fight, was no exception.
"Good." Asura nodded. "Don't look so unhappy, Lumia. You'll be helping out with Plan A."
"And how will I be doing that?"
"Right. You see, Punti's full name is Punti Arlandel. He's the son of the Hero General, Matias Arlandel."
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