The Story Where I, the Strongest Mercenary, Was Reincarnated as a Bullied Introverted High School Student ~ When I Was Freely Enjoying My School Life, for Some Reason the Girls Around Me Started Glancing at Me~ - Chapter 9: Miyamoto Ryuji's Mercenary Days

The United Nations Special Forces unit ‘SWORD’.

A secret unit that worked in the shadows while moving between hideouts around the world, secretly protecting the world from crises.

I had joined as a mercenary and was the youngest and most inexperienced member of the unit.

“Hey, rookie. I heard Japanese people are diligent, but you seriously can stand listening to his explanations, huh. Are you an otaku too?”

Inside a room at one of the hideouts, while I was receiving explanations about weapon usage and characteristics from my comrades, the one who interrupted in English was Aaron. He was an American male ex-soldier who was quite the joker.

“R-Ryuji-san is amazing! Even though I’m a weapons otaku who talks so much, he listens intently while taking notes without showing any sign of annoyance! This is the first time anyone besides my daughter has done this… it’s the best!”

The one saying this while shedding tears of emotion and smoothly disassembling and reassembling handguns and grenades was Elma. He was a plain-looking German man who was in charge of weapon procurement and support.

“I just want to get stronger quickly. That’s why I study and train.”

When I said that, the bearded team member swaying in a hammock while reading a book also replied.

“That’s right, Aaron. Knowledge helps people, stimulates imagination, and enriches life. You shouldn’t mock the attitude of learning.”

He was Dino, an Italian. He read novels whenever he had free time and was always filled with intelligence and composure. He was like the brain of the unit.

“Heh, no matter how much knowledge you stuff in, it’s meaningless if you can’t use it.”

“Aaron. You only know English, but there are various languages in the world. Ryuji learns other languages too and always puts them to use locally, right?”

As usual, when Dino was about to thoroughly refute him with sarcasm, Aaron scratched his head vigorously and grabbed me by the scruff of my neck like he was picking up a kitten.

“Experience is more reliable than knowledge! Ryuji, rather than listening to weapon explanations, shooting the hell out of them would be 100 times faster, right? Let’s go to the shooting range!”

“…That’s certainly more efficient. Alright, shooting practice it is.”

Thinking Aaron’s words made sense, I prepared my weapon. I had also gotten eager to shoot after listening to the explanations. Not people, targets.

“Why is Ryuji training so hard?”

Oscar, who was cooking, asked casually. He was French and a bit pretentious for a mercenary. He was also strict about dining manners, often giving passionate speeches about how etiquette made the person. Of course, he fought with the crude Aaron at every meal.

“I want to become strong. Strong enough to defeat the captain.”

“Ah~ now that you mention it, you did charge at him on your first day and got beaten down.”

“Strong enough to defeat the captain… huh. That’s gonna take a hell of a long time!”

Aaron laughed heartily.

“Hmph, keep talking. I’ll get strong quickly and surpass the captain. And I’ll learn all the skills needed on the battlefield to become an invincible mercenary.”

“Yeah! Then I’ll teach you!”

I headed to shooting practice with Aaron, who was laughing heartily while holding his gun.

◇◇◇

“Hey, Ryuji! You do it too!”

After training and finishing our meal, Aaron called out to me. I saw that pull-up equipment and a stopwatch had been prepared.

“A game I invented! ‘Who can take off their socks fastest without using their hands!'”

“…”

I was speechless at the sheer childishness. Was this what adults did?

“The rules are simple. You hang from that bar and take off your socks using only your feet. Whoever’s slowest does the dishes today.”

“What kind of stupid game is this? Regular cards would be fine.”

Closing the book he was reading, Dino laughed.

“Aaron’s been losing at cards lately, so he used his empty head to devise a game.”

“Besides, you like training, right? This would be more useful than cards.”

“…When would the skill of taking off socks without hands ever be useful?”

When I looked exasperated, Aaron wagged his index finger left and right.

“You’ll figure that out later. Life’s like that, every experience has meaning, you know?”

“Alright! I’ll do it too!”

The one who jumped out enthusiastically was Gilberto, a Spaniard. He was the biggest guy in the unit… but also fat. Oscar stepped in to stop him.

“Gil, you can’t. You weigh 100 kilos, right? What if you break the equipment?”

“96.76 kilos! I lost weight!”

“It’s touching how you remember down to the decimal places.”

“This is ridiculous. I’ll just do the dishes. Also, Gilberto, go on a diet.”

When I tried to withdraw from the game, Aaron laughed mockingly.

“Oh? Running away? You’re scared of losing, aren’t you?”

It was a stupid provocation, but it was perfectly effective on a young hothead like me. I glared at Aaron, who was grinning smugly.

“Fine, I’ll take off not just my socks but my underwear too.”

“Don’t take off your underwear…”

Oscar muttered something reasonable in Spanish.

30 minutes later.

In the kitchen was the sight of me washing dishes after losing.

(Damn, it’s surprisingly difficult… First I’ll take off the right one, and I need to spread the toes of my foot as wide as possible. That creates space inside the sock… stay calm and don’t rush…)

…Later, after practicing and completely mastering the technique, I became able to take off both socks in 3 seconds.

“So what’s the point of that skill?”

“It lets me make you wash dishes like this.”

“Ahaha! You’re not wrong! Fools and scissors are useful depending on how you use them!”

Aaron, who lost, washed the dishes. Aaron, who couldn’t win at cards and couldn’t cook, kept getting better and better at dishwashing.

◇◇◇

“Ryuji. We have a new friend for our unit.”

“…Captain, this isn’t a school, you know?”

One day, the captain of ‘SWORD’ said that and brought in—

Charlotte Stanley.

A genius beautiful hacker girl with sad eyes who was only 13 years old at the time.