Chapter 28 : It Was a Coincidence
Chapter 28: It Was a Coincidence
“The hero Hillan Cargill has returned!”
Hillan Cargill’s return had thrown Hortonwork into an uproar.
Whether in a good or bad sense, his return meant many things.
The lord and the others rushed out to learn of his victory or defeat, but he immediately boarded the teleportation array and vanished.
Leaving behind Granada, who had come down to carry out the Demon King’s order to reorganize the mercenary company.
And Granada now found himself facing an unexpected reunion.
“...What is this, you lot?”
It was a coincidence. He had spotted familiar faces drinking and chattering in the tavern inside the Mercenary Guild.
“C-Captain?”
“A-Alive after all?”
“Stop.”
Their darting eyes. Those who had been about to flee forced awkward smiles and sat back down.
“Do you want me to crush you one by one before you talk? Or will you just talk?”
“Haha...”
“W-We pretended to be dead after getting swept away by the avalanche and came down the mountain... It’s not like we could do anything important anyway... And nothing’s more important than our lives...”
“So it was strange that you all vanished from a single avalanche...”
They hadn’t died—they had gone into hiding.
“And you still planned to pocket the money after that?”
These damn bastards.
After being betrayed once by a hero, he had become sensitive. In the end, this was no different from his own men abandoning and betraying their captain.
“C-Captain! We just weren’t as strong as you! We had no choice!”
“The Ergest Mountains were beyond the limits of mercenaries like us to begin with.”
Objectively speaking, the Red Hawk Mercenary Company wasn’t weak. They had barely twenty members, but all of them were at least mid-grade mercenaries.
If they had been any less than that, Berje wouldn’t have paid a large sum to buy their time.
As Granada wrinkled his brow, the woman who had been sitting with the mercenaries spoke to him.
“Are you the captain of the Red Hawk Mercenary Company?”
“Did I recruit new members without realizing it?”
Even as he said that, he guessed she wasn’t a mercenary. Her outfit didn’t match the others at all—if anything, she resembled a knight.
“This is our first meeting. I am the hero, Kaede. And you must be the famed elf, Granada.”
Her emerald eyes gleaming beneath radiant golden hair were striking. The aura she gave off wasn’t ordinary either. Above all, she was beautiful.
“Hero...?”
“That’s right, Captain. This hero here treated us to a big meal, saying she had some questions for us.”
“Captain, have a drink too!”
The mercenaries hurried to change the subject, but fell silent at Granada’s glance. His tone grew slightly calmer.
“What brings a hero to Hortonwork?”
“To participate in the hero’s march.”
“In that case...”
“I know. I’m far too late.”
Kaede shook her head.
“Circumstances kept me from joining on time, but I believed there would still be a chance even if I came late, so I traveled all the way here.”
But by the time she arrived, the heroes—including the hero Watton—had already descended the mountain. The situation was already bleak.
She was disappointed, yet she had found a single ray of hope.
“That Hillan Cargill is still on the mountain. But I couldn’t just climb up blindly, so I was speaking with these people.”
“That’s right. We did at least participate in the hero’s march before coming back down, didn’t we?”
“You were the first to drop out.”
“Ahem.”
Bark cleared his throat.
“If you wanted to ask about the hero’s march, you’ve come to the wrong people. They may be my mercenaries, but shamefully, these fools fled without experiencing a real battle.”
“I did think it strange. They knew far less than I expected.”
The mercenaries flinched.
“But it seems I’m fortunate.”
“What do you mean?”
“Because I have met you, Granada.”
“It’s not fortunate—it’s bad.”
“What?”
“I stayed with the hero Hillan Cargill until the end. What do you think it means that I am here?”
“...No way?”
Her expression stiffened.
“Yes, the hero’s march failed, and all remaining members, including Hillan Cargill, descended the mountain.”
“That can’t be...”
“Hillan went straight to another location using the teleportation array. There will probably be an official announcement soon. We failed, and we didn’t even get to see the Demon King’s Tower.”
“...May I hear the details?”
“Well. My time is rather expensive...”
“As much as you want...! I’ll pay as much as it takes!”
Granada couldn’t flatly refuse those desperate eyes.
* * *
“...This is impossible.”
From beginning to end, Kaede denied everything that came out of Granada’s mouth.
“The Demon King’s Tower wasn’t at the summit? That has never happened.”
“It has never happened before, yes—but can you guarantee it will never happen? I’m the living proof.”
“......”
This was the terror of preconceptions. The shock was enormous when something that had always been natural suddenly ceased to be.
That was why Berje, who ignored the tradition passed down to Demon Kings and twisted everything completely, was remarkable.
“In any case, that is why we found nothing, and the hero’s march failed. I recommend you give up as well and head somewhere else.”
“...I suppose I must.”
An outcome already decided couldn’t be overturned afterward.
“It was an honor to meet the famed Granada.”
“Where are you planning to go?”
“There is only one place a hero can go...”
“Welcome!”
New customers entered. They were mercenaries, the sort you could find anywhere, clad in robes that covered half their bodies.
Except—
‘Not bad...?’
The aura they gave off was slightly different from ordinary mercenaries, drawing his attention.
“What’s the matter?”
“...I swallowed wrong for a moment.”
Kaede hunched her shoulders and cleared her throat. For someone who supposedly swallowed wrong, her face wasn’t all that red.
“Anyway...”
She coughed lightly.
“I should go to the Hero Guild and look for requests.”
“There won’t be another hero’s march like this for a while.”
The hero’s march usually involved reaching as many floors of the tower as possible, rather than defeating the Demon King.
A battle with the Demon King demanded everything from both sides, so unless a kingdom’s successor happened to be kidnapped like this time, it did not happen.
“It can’t be helped. Ah, I’ll pay as promised. Please finish your meal.”
Kaede placed a few silver coins down and disappeared.
‘A typical novice hero.’
Those with skill but lacking mental fortitude. Most of them trusted themselves too blindly, became obsessed with fame, and met bad ends.
“Stop.”
“Hahaha...”
“We were about to head out too...”
Bark and the mercenaries who had tried to quietly slip away with Kaede sat back down.
“Why did you do it?”
“T-To live?”
“...Honestly, the Ergest Mountains are way beyond our ability, aren’t they?”
For mercenaries, trust and credit were important. They did have their pride, but not many would actually stake their lives for the sake of credibility.
Granada didn’t think poorly of that. Wanting to survive was natural for any living being. And indeed, the Ergest Mountains were too much for them. Had they followed to the end, they would likely have become wandering spirits drifting around the mountain.
‘The only one who might have survived is...’
Bark, who had been the captain.
“Fine, let’s say—just for argument’s sake—that what you’re saying is reasonable. But that’s not why I’m angry.”
“Huh?”
“You damn bastards with not a shred of loyalty. You made a plan to run away without me? Without your captain?”
“T-That part...?”
Bark stammered.
“What, do you think I have two lives? Do you think there’s anyone in this world other than the Demon King brat who wouldn’t find the Ergest Mountains dangerous?”
Even Hillan, after holding out for a while, would be monster food once his strength was exhausted in that place.
“But Captain, you—”
“Shh.”
Granada covered Bark’s mouth. His gaze turned to the back.
Those who had been quietly picking at food in a gloomy corner of the tavern rose to their feet.
From the moment they entered, they had oddly drawn his eye—men who didn’t look like mercenaries at all.
‘Are they following Kaede?’
Suspicious, no matter how one looked at it.
She did seem like someone being chased—and it looked like she truly was.
‘Did she cause some kind of trouble?’
Among heroes, there were indeed some who became so drunk on being “heroes” that they behaved rudely and caused trouble everywhere.
Dozens of mercenaries drew their swords at once. The icy killing intent pricked Granada’s skin like sharp needles.
“I’d like to leave too, but...”
Granada’s lips curled upward.
“The one I serve is going to take great interest in this matter.”
“The one you serve?”
“That woman.”
Granada’s eyes drifted past the mercenaries, sweeping over Kaede.
“The princess, right?”
“Die.”
A flash burst.
Slice—
Granada’s hair was severed. The scattered strands hadn’t even hit the ground before the sword lunged like a stinging wasp.
Clang—
The blade Granada barely drew trembled violently.
He blocked—but he did not truly block.
Unable to disperse the force, Granada tumbled across the ground. He grit his teeth at the unexpected follow-up strike.
‘A strong one!’
He was different from the others. Someone capable of evading his senses and hiding his true skill.
Granada calmly finished drawing his blade. He wrapped aura around it and scattered it. The fragmented aura became hundreds of leaves and shot forward.
“Parlor tricks.”
The man drew a line. In an instant, a slash ripped through space itself, shattering every leaf and reaching Granada’s nose.
Clang—
He pierced through the wall and was flung backward. Only after being pushed nearly ten meters did Granada barely steady his posture.
But his opponent didn’t allow a gap.
A heavy blade fell like a weight. Granada’s legs dug into the ground. The lingering shock ran through his chest, leaving a hairline crack within.
Damn it.
Blood seeped from between his tightly clenched lips.
The unexpected ambush had cost him.
‘Do I need to go all out?’
No—he would be exposed.
An elf’s power became complete only when united with spirits. Too easy to identify.
If they realized he was Granada, the recognition-obscuring magic would be meaningless, and the Demon King Berje’s plans would be derailed.
In the end, his best option was escape.
But could he? A formidable opponent stood right before him, and mercenaries surrounded him in a tightening circle.
Trying to maneuver through that raging tide was like abandoning the ship and jumping into the sea.
‘Forget it. I’ll just kill them.’
Granada’s eyes turned cold.
In this world, the most important thing was one’s own life. It might end up interfering with the Demon King’s grand scheme, but if he died here, none of that mattered.
‘And as long as there are no witnesses, it’s fine, right?’
If he killed them all, there would be no witnesses. Then he could erase even the memory of the land with a spirit. No matter who came searching afterward, they would never find a trace.
At the very moment he thought that—
Thud—
“...What?”
The mercenary who had been pressing Granada fell back, vomiting blood. A sword clad in flames cleaved between him and the others.
The mercenaries engulfed in flames screamed and thrashed.
“So you were taking your sweet time.”
The voice came from above. Everyone looked up.
Slowly. Very slowly. He descended.
“Slacking off in a place like this, are we?”
“...Does this look like slacking? Do you not see these injuries?”
“Showing off when it’s the kind of wound a little spit could fix.”
“Wow. I didn’t know your spit was made of holy water.”
“Do you want to die?”
“Yes, yes. I should hold my tongue.”
Good grief.
Granada let out an empty laugh.
Berje’s gaze shifted toward the mercenaries.
“Who are you to bully my slave?”
“Can’t you call me your subordinate instead? Even if it means the same thing.”
“I even have a slave certificate.”
“You do NOT!”
“Well, it tore. But I did have one.”
“...Why did you even come here?”
“It’s not because I wanted to save you. I didn’t think you’d be this weak.”
“...I didn’t expect you to.”
“Just a coincidence.”
“A coincidence?”
“Yes.”
“And you expect me to believe that?”
“That’s up to you.”