My Beloved Princess ~The Boy Called Incompetent Rises with Only a Sword and the Princess's Devotion~ - Chapter 106: The Strongest Mercenary, Black Kirin

Chapter 106: The Strongest Mercenary, Black Kirin

Dragonkin who graduated from the academy would raise a pack, establish a base in the wasteland, and build a life there.

They generally lived in a self-sufficient manner, but they still needed income to secure the foundations of daily life. Broadly speaking, there were three ways to earn it.

The most common method was trade.

Dragonkin hated having their territory trespassed on, so each city was basically closed off. Enter without permission, and it meant war on the spot.

But if that continued, every city would effectively be in a state of isolation, and trade would be impossible. That was why the concept of neutral cities, which belonged to no pack, had been devised.

Neutral cities were fully open places that turned no one away. Dragonkin brought in goods they had produced themselves, sold them for profit, then used those earnings to buy necessary supplies, such as building materials, before making the journey home. Incidentally, knowledge such as the know-how of commerce and the basics of craftsmanship was taught in classroom lectures.

The next most common method was plunder.

They attacked other packs and stole their property. Among dragonkin, who truly lived by the creed that might made right, this was a fairly common way of life, and there were by no means few who made banditry their trade. It was also common to hear stories of someone happily hauling home stolen treasure, only to have it stolen in turn on the way back.

Caravans returning from neutral cities were especially easy targets, so the younger packs with less strength had to be particularly careful.

The last method was mercenary work.

Dragonkin of noble rank or above sometimes recruited mercenaries when war broke out.

This was a measure meant to keep losses among the pack’s own members to a minimum, and it was usually mercenaries and slaves who were sent to the front lines, where the death rate was highest.

Mercenary work was defined by high risk, but also high reward. There were bonuses based on one’s accomplishments, so if one was confident in one’s skill, it was not a bad option. And for those still in a period of growth, real combat promised major gains in ability as well.

After graduating from the academy, the path Kirin chose was mercenary work.

To begin with, Kirin had always felt that fiddly production jobs did not suit her temperament, and she had never made any real attempt to attend classroom lectures properly. As long as she had her fists, that was enough. It was the kind of judgment only someone with absolute confidence in her own strength could make.

But Kokuren had reservations about it.

Mercenary work had a high death rate. No matter how strong Kirin was, it was too soon for a girl who had only just turned eighteen to stand on a battlefield. Even if it had not been Kokuren, most people would have thought the same.

However, no matter which option they chose, risk followed them everywhere. If everyone went together to a neutral city for trade, their territory might be seized while they were away. But if they split their manpower in order to defend their territory, then the danger of being attacked by bandits due to insufficient strength would rise in turn.

The safest option was to remain in their territory and never leave, but that meant procuring every supply themselves, in other words, living a self-sufficient survival life, and their days would surely become tight and joyless.

Mercenary work was the most dangerous path, but if they survived, the returns were also the greatest. In addition, it would allow the rest of the members, including Kokuren, to focus on defending their territory. Kirin’s argument offered a certain degree of merit from the standpoint of balancing income against risk.

Even among the Six Consorts, opinion was split.

The one who opposed it most strongly was Shunka. She remained firmly against it to the very end.

Their post-graduation path became the subject of endless dispute. In the end, Kokuren’s final decision was this:

“There’s no way I can send the woman I fell for into a place of death and then live easy all by myself. So I’m going too. No, not just me. Let’s all go together.” 

He was proposing that they abandon the idea of building a territory altogether and have everyone roam from battlefield to battlefield as mercenaries. For Kirin, who was eccentric enough to deserve a “complete” attached to the word, to think it was ridiculous said quite a lot.

And yet, for some reason, that proposal passed with surprising ease.

“If it means I can stay with Princess-sama, then I am in favour of it.”

Shunka’s words started it.

“I agree as well. We can always build a territory later. What we need now is strength. If we can grow stronger by crossing battlefields… then Kokuren’s great ambition is sure to come closer.”

Once Rakuyō, who was by far the most respected among the Six Consorts, voiced her approval, the matter was settled.

Thus was born a group like migratory birds, one that possessed no fixed territory.

◇◇◇◇◇

Five years later.

Kirin was on a battlefield in the southern region.

A wasteland swept by fierce winds.

As sand and dust danced through the air, Kirin narrowed her eyes irritably and covered her mouth with her sleeve.

Below, as seen from the hill, a vast army had assembled beyond the wasteland. It was a coalition army of three hundred thousand from the other races, centred on the human nation, the Kingdom of Casteria.

Humans clad in armour stood in ranks across the centre, powerfully built beastmen held the left wing, and lizardmen covered in scales held the right. In the rear stood units of elven longbowmen and human magicians. It was the famed dwarf race of master craftsmen who had equipped them with their weapons.

Against them, there were about twenty thousand on this side. The foremost line, numbering less than a tenth of the enemy, consisted of five thousand mercenaries and fifteen thousand disposable slave soldiers. Twenty thousand regular troops, all elites, were held in reserve at the rear.

Everyone’s clothing was unified in light blue dragon robes. At a glance, it let one tell friend from foe, and the design of the robes also showed each person’s status. Normally, a dragon robe bore its master’s name embroidered at the shoulder, but on the shoulder of Kirin, a mercenary, was the name of her employer: “Anraku.”

Then…

“They’re coming.”

The enemy longbowmen bent their great bows in unison and fired arrows high into the sky. The range was over three kilometres. The arrows, carrying the blessing of the elves, were launched high overhead, rode the wind, and came pouring down over Kirin and the others like a rain of light.

Kirin effortlessly caught the arrow flying straight for the space between her brows with nothing but her fingertips. Gazing intently at its arrowhead, she let out a breath, then drew her arm back wide and hurled it back.

The arrow, launched at superhuman speed, easily broke the sound barrier and reached the enemy ranks in an instant. It pierced straight through from the front line onward, opening a small hole in their formation.

“Humans are fragile, aren’t they?”

Kokuren, who had been shading his eyes with a hand as he watched the whole thing, gave a wry smile.

“Did that punch through twenty of them? Every time, I’m stunned by that absurd strength of yours.”

“I do wonder what sort of way that is to speak to a girl of tender age.”

While arrows rained down around them, she calmly batted them aside and exchanged words with Kokuren. The other mercenaries under attack were likewise handling them with composure, knocking them away with their swords without losing their footing. There was probably little serious damage.

That year, the dragonkin nation was under invasion by the other races.

Swept up and ravaged by the vast army that had come surging in all at once, the small packs of the southern region had been annihilated. Even the nobles had suffered grievous losses.

Normally, dragonkin spent their time in internal strife, but they had a culture of uniting against outside enemies. Faced with invasion, the nobles who held territory in the southern region banded together. A noble alliance uniting thirteen packs was formed, and mercenaries were also recruited on a grand scale to serve as its vanguard.

The mercenaries’ role was to clear the way as the spearhead.

It was the most dangerous assignment, with the highest mortality rate. But the rewards prepared for it were commensurate. If they won the war, there would be a success bonus. If one distinguished oneself in battle, even more bonuses would be added.

If things went well, they should be able to secure enough funds that they would not have to worry about food for quite some time. The mercenaries’ morale was high as well.

Perhaps shaken by the arrow Kirin had thrown, order in the enemy camp was beginning to crumble. Naturally so. An arrow had been thrown back flat from more than three kilometres away, and with a single throw it had caused over twenty casualties. If one imagined a second or third arrow coming next, panic was only natural.

The commander of the noble alliance did not let this chance slip past.

Mounted on horseback, the commander with a thin moustache swung his arm down grandly and gave the order.

“All forces, charge! There’ll be bounty money for whoever takes the enemy general’s head. Look forward to it!”

The first to leap forward was Kirin.

She raced ahead of everyone else, leading the charge.

Kokuren followed close behind her, and with roars of “Uoooooh!” the mercenaries broke into a run like an avalanche. The slave soldiers then charged after them.

The distance to the enemy lines rapidly shrank.

Arrows were loosed once more, but the charge of the battle-loving dragonkin did not stop.

Kirin, charging at the front, raced across the earth as one with the wind. Along the way, she snatched a flying arrow out of the air, and without stopping, ran over the rocky wasteland and threw it sidearm. It pierced the enemy commander’s brow as he sat atop his horse.

Kokuren, who had caught up and was running alongside her, let out a whistle.

“Platoon commander down. Looks like we’ve already bagged ourselves a bonus.”

“A small fry like that doesn’t matter. More importantly, let’s do the usual.”

“Right.”

Answering with a grunt, Kokuren kicked off the ground and jumped. Kirin drove her fist into the sole of his foot and launched him upward. It was a leap born from the leg strength of a dragonkin and the arm strength of Kirin. He shot to a height of over thirty metres in a single bound, and Kokuren smiled cruelly.

“Let that which is his melt into darkness. [Black Rain]“

Above Kokuren, who raised both hands, a gigantic circular magic formation appeared. A black wave of energy shot into the heavens and spread out in all directions as though covering the blue sky. Pitch-black darkness that reflected no light dispersed across a wide area, and when the sun was hidden in its shadow, night fell upon the battlefield wasteland.

The enemy army stirred in a great uproar.

The jet-black darkness covering the sky began to descend as if drawn down by gravity. And as it poured to the ground, it truly looked like black rain.

The rain of death fell upon the heads of the enemy magician corps, who had just begun their chants, and mercilessly punched holes through their bodies. The panicked magicians raised magical barriers, but exposed to the corrosive darkness of the rain, they could not hold out for long. The rear guard, which had been preparing anti-dragonkin sorcery to coincide with the charge, was rendered nonfunctional in an instant.

Kirin sprinted straight for the enemy front line, now stripped of rear support, without slowing in the least. She focused [Ki] into the soles of her feet as they struck the ground, creating explosive acceleration. Then, in the next instant, as golden [Fighting Ki] wrapped her entire body, Kirin vanished from the spot.

Ground Crossing.

A line of golden light was drawn straight across the earth.

It was a long-distance version of a body-shrinking technique. She instantly closed the distance and drove the heel of her palm, the first spear of the charge, into an enemy soldier. One strike. Armour shattered, and a man went flying with a pop like popcorn. As the enemy soldiers who had their attention stolen by that almost comical sight stared, she slew two more, then shattered the arms of a giant who had raised a war hammer with a spinning kick. In the span of a single blink, four men died, and stepping over their corpses, Kirin pressed on.

As though forcing her way through a crowd into the depths of a jungle, she carved a path open by sheer strength. It was a powerful way of moving, evocative of a heavy tank. But if surrounded on all sides, blind spots would naturally appear. A wave attack of swords and spears came for her back.

Then a black Breath blast rained down from above. The heads of the humans who had been aiming for her back vanished without a trace.

“You still overdo it as much as ever. At least wait a little for the rest of us to catch up.”

“As long as I have your support, that is enough. Here I go.”

Kokuren, having landed gracefully from above, swung his sword and cut down the surrounding enemies in a single stroke. Without even turning around, Kirin continued crushing the enemy with her bare hands.

Just as the enemy formation was beginning to collapse under the sheer force of Kirin and the others, the mercenaries following behind crashed straight into them from the front.

No tricks, just a straightforward clash of strength. The two armies collided and crossed. Even with an army of three hundred thousand, the number who could fight at once was limited. Though outnumbered, in a battlefield where both armies were mixed together, dragonkin with their superior individual strength held the advantage. And above all, what decided the battle was…

“I see him. I’ll finish this in one go.”

At the sight of a commander glimpsed through the wall of bodies in the melee, Kirin grinned.

◇◇◇◇◇

Noble alliance camp, front lines.

Base camp lined with tents.

Mercenaries were gathered around a hearth made from rounded stones, warming themselves. On any battlefield, mercenaries were overwhelmingly male. Just as Kokuren had said, perhaps not wanting to send the woman one loved into a place of death was a feeling shared by dragonkin men in general.

At the edge of the camp was a hastily dug well.

She drew water with the pulley and washed her face.

Then, twitching her nose, Kirin frowned in displeasure.

Her dragon robes were filthy with mud and blood. The smell of blood she had been drenched in assaulted her nose and clung stubbornly to her nostrils, refusing to leave. She made her living by crossing battlefields as a mercenary. She should have been used to it by now, but no matter how many times she smelled the scent of death, she never grew accustomed to it.

Then a towel was gently laid over the head of the dripping Kirin.

“Quit making such a gloomy face. If the smell bothers you that much, why don’t you go take a bath?”

The one speaking bluntly as he roughly rubbed at his short-cropped black hair was Kokuren. Kirin smiled mildly and said in a teasing tone,

“Oh? Then shall we bathe together later?”

“D-don’t say stupid things!?”

“We’re husband and wife, so I see no issue.”

“Like hell we can flirt around on a battlefield. It’ll throw off my instincts.”

Kirin knew full well that was merely a cover for embarrassment. Since they owned no territory and moved from battlefield to battlefield, they had no time to enjoy life at night. In the end, they had made it this far while still remaining in much the same relationship as when they were students.

Together with Kokuren, she returned to the base camp.

Black smoke rose from the hearth fire, and a savoury smell drifted from the pot hanging over it. On the grey earth, men with flushed faces could be seen guzzling black liquor, while beside them slave girls bustled about serving them. Among the hired, slaves ranked below even mercenaries in the hierarchy.

Kirin clicked her tongue softly and entered the narrow passage between one tent and another. Ahead, the men loitering there as if to block the way recognised the two of them, flinched, and opened a path.

As she walked straight through the middle, curious stares gathered from the men around them, and whispering reached her ears.

“Oi, look. It’s the Black Kirin pair.”

“Black Kirin?”

“What, you don’t know? That’s the nickname for the strongest mercenary duo. Today too, they were the ones who led the charge into the enemy lines and took the general’s head, right?”

“Huh? You’re saying the reason the enemy front line collapsed was because of those two?”

“That’s right. You saw the infantry unit in the centre front row, didn’t you? They took out the commander there right at the start of the battle. Once a unit loses command, it’s nothing but a rabble.”

The large men huddled together and whispered among themselves.

Then one of them smacked his hand and whispered to the man beside him.

“That reminds me. I heard a rumour once, about the strongest mercenaries in the eastern region’s civil conflict, the ones who killed a Dragon Duke.”

“Yeah, those were definitely the Black Kirin.”

“Oh, come on, seriously? They took down the enemy’s supreme commander? That’s insane.”

“And the rumour says they’re still just kids in their early twenties.”

“So they’re still in the middle of growing stronger? That’s terrifying.”

“Still, this time I’m glad they’re on our side. Last time they were with the enemy, and I prayed I wouldn’t run into them.”

“No thanks to facing the sort who’d kill a Dragon Duke on the front lines. All right, I’ve memorised their faces. If they’re on the enemy side next time, I’m turning tail on the spot.”

The name someone had given them was Black Kirin.

They had come to be called that after Kokuren and Kirin. Their influence on the front lines was immense, so much so that rumours said the side with the Black Kirin on it would win.

To make a name for oneself as a mercenary.

For those who made their living in the mercenary trade, that was a great honour.

And yet Kirin had little interest in such envy. Lightly brushing off the curious looks from the men, she glanced at the partner walking beside her.

“It may have been the right choice to assign Rakuyō and the others to the safer rear support.”

“You think so? Today was so lacking in challenge it almost felt anticlimactic.”

“That is precisely why I have a bad feeling about it.”

“Hm. They wouldn’t have attacked without any chance of winning… turn that around, and it also means they launched this invasion because they did have some kind of chance.”

“Humans may be weaker in strength, but they make up for it with underhanded cleverness. Let us be careful.”

“Yeah, I know.”

That day, the enemy force lost thirty thousand soldiers and withdrew. The noble alliance’s casualties did not even reach three digits. It was an overwhelming victory.

And after that as well, the noble alliance continued winning battle after battle, and the mood among the mercenaries grew ever more triumphant. Having driven back the front lines in no time, the noble alliance decided to march on the Kingdom of Casteria, in order to crush them so thoroughly that they would never attack again.