On the first day after the destruction of Ethenia, after we began our trek towards the border of Kierhai, I asked Alverd what it took to be a professional mercenary.
He scratched his chin thoughtfully, taking time to ponder my question. Finally, he answered my question with another question. “Do you want to learn how to be a mercenary, milady?”
I nodded. “I don’t really see any other path for me at this point. And from now on, you can drop the ‘milady’ part. I’m not going to hang on to that pompous title anymore.” I stoked the campfire absentmindedly while I thought about it. “It’ll be tough, I’m sure. But there’s nothing for me here. The only way to keep going is forward.”
Alverd stared into the fire. He was lost in his own memories. When he finally cleared his throat, he looked me in the eye before speaking. “I’m afraid there isn’t any formal or official training I can put you through. The best I can offer is mentoring you in the ins and outs of what it means to be a mercenary. Although, if you want a more cynical, detailed analysis, you’re free to ask Kuro about his Cardinal Rules.”
This is the first I’ve heard of these. “Cardinal Rules?” Alverd nodded. “Kuro has this set of ten or so rules to being a professional mercenary. I see them more as suggestions, really. They’re crafted from his rather unique view of human nature rather than any hard experience we’ve had over the years, so take them with a grain of salt.”
Alverd walked me through the first two. Not surprising that Kuro is deeply distrustful of others. Comes with the territory, I guess. The Third Rule stated, “a bad feeling in the gut is worth more than the money on the table.” He was able to break it down to the much simpler idiom “trust your instincts”.
“Surely Kuro could be more concise when it comes to his Rules?”
He shook his head. “I’m afraid not. He claims there’s a lot of nuance into how he phrases them. At times, it feels like the way they’re worded allows them to bend them when he pleases, although I can’t complain since he bends them in our favor nearly as often as he tries to use them against me.” He smirked, throwing another bundle of sticks into the fire. “Besides, he knows he can’t strong arm me into going against my conscience. I know he just wants me to try and think things through a bit before I commit to any acts of selfless self-sacrifice.”
“You know him very well. Just as he knows you.” Alverd leaned back and looked at the night sky, taking a deep sigh. “He’s my best friend. It’d be hard to call him that if I didn’t understand him as well as he did me.” We sat together for some time, and then he spoke again. “If you want me to help you adjust to the life of a mercenary, I can offer some pointers. Of course, you can always ask for help if you need it.”
I tried not to let the burning in my cheeks show when I smiled and nodded. “It’s a deal.”
Watching a bar fight break out all around me, the best I could do was feebly smack my arm against Alverd’s armor, mumbling as I did so. “Toooooo looooouuuuudddddd.” I moaned, as the sound of breaking glass assaulted my delicate ears. There was shouting now, and each spike in noise felt like a blackpowder cannon going off a foot away from me. My vision swam as I tried to push myself to my feet.
From the side of me, I heard Kuro’s distorted voice. “How much did she even have?!” I felt Alicia’s arm hook itself behind my back and grip my hip, and she hauled me up, pulling my arm over her shoulder. “Not even a full flagon. She’s a bloody lightweight.” I was about to open my mouth to protest when another round of nausea bubbled up in my stomach and I had to put my left hand up to my mouth to stifle a burp.
How do people enjoy this swill? Is this really a desirable state of mind to be in? Why is everything so unbearably, agonizingly loud? The entire world lurched to the left, then the right as Alicia yanked me upright and onto my feet, everything a blur as my vision swam in and out of focus. Urrrggghhh, please, be more gentle. My head feels ready to split open.
No sooner did Alicia remove me from the table when the large mercenary woman who had rescued Kuro slammed a Legionnaire onto it. She had grabbed him mid-charge, utilized his forward momentum, and lifted him up and over her shoulder so that he fell back first onto the small piece of furniture. It collapsed under his weight, and he groaned as he lay amidst the splintered wood. Yuzuruha grabbed him with both hands and with a grunt of rage shoved him headfirst through the flimsy wooden wall like a miniature battering ram..
I did not really understand what happened next. One second Kuro was screaming, the next a burly man dressed in Kierhaian iron armor was tackling a Legionnaire over the bar. Black armored soldiers swarmed into the tavern and silver armored mercenaries met them with fists, bottles and harsh language. A Legionnaire started smacking a Noble Wolf’s head against the bar, only for the bartender to yank said Legionnaire’s helmet off and smash a large bottle over his head, spilling brownish liquid and broken glass all over the countertop.
Alicia yelled next to me, making my eardrums feel like they were being stabbed with needles. “Kuro! Blast them or something!” Kuro’s equally loud and equally painful voice was preceded by the sound of his brass staff whacking something metallic. “Do you want me to blow us up too? Alcohol is flammable, you know!”
Wait, really? Is that why it felt like my throat was on fire after I drank that disgusting drink? Bleh. My brain struggled, unsuccessfully, to understand how a liquid could be flammable when it was meant to be consumed like water as Alicia steadied me. Alverd took his shield, holding it like a dinner tray, and bashed it across another Legionnaire’s face, making another loud noise that almost made my head split open. Dear Eternity, please make it stop. My kingdom for some earplugs, my bloody head hurts so badly.
Any further thoughts I had on the subject were interrupted when Alicia let go of me. My knees were as wobbly as a newborn calf’s and certainly in no state to hold me up, and I landed on my rear. A Legionnaire was swiping at Alicia with a broken bottle, the sharp glass still dripping with what had been in it. She was grappling with his wrist, trying hard to stop him from driving it into her eye. Both of her hands were clasped around his arm, muscles bulging in her arms as she grunted with effort.
Slowly, she bent the man’s arm back and then violently jerked it to the side and twisted it to force him to drop the bottle. With a cry of pain, the man bent at the knee, unable to maintain his balance. Alicia then reared her head back and with a shrill battle cry slammed her forehead into his face. With his visor up nothing stood in the way of her headbutt. He crumpled, and Alicia swayed slightly before she righted herself.
Her eyes were sharp, gleaming with barely contained fury. “SCREW IT!” she screamed. With another high pitched wail she ran, stepped up onto one of the floor tables, and jumped off of it and into three other Legionnaires, bowling them over and taking them all to the ground. Like a rabid animal, she set about savaging them with her bare hands, smacking their heads together, and making even more damnable noise.
With another strike from his metal staff, Kuro knocked out the Legionnaire who’d been assaulting him. He stumbled back, high on his adrenaline, his eyes darting everywhere to find a way out. “There has to be a back door or something. Probably in the back. That’s where I’d put it.” My goodness, he’s right. The logic of it is so simple. How did I not think of that? I nodded sagely, regretting it instantly as my vision blurred again. As I fought back another wave of nausea threatening to come up my throat, another Legionnaire grabbed Kuro by the shoulders.
You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.
The young mage was hurled across the room where he landed on the bartop with a groan of pain. As the Legionnaire pushed her way through the crowd to get to him, he reached over to the bottles on the shelf behind the bar. He grabbed a large bottle, flicked the cork out with his thumb, then stuffed something into the lip. As the Legionnaire reached for him, he ran the jewel on the end of his staff against the mouth of the bottle and it ignited in flame. With a scream somewhere between war cry and shrieking seven year old girl, he swung it at the Legionnaire’s face.
The bottle shattered, coating her in now flaming liquid. She screamed, and my mind went blank for perhaps maybe the umpteenth time since this entire fiasco had begun as white hot needles pricked my brain. Honestly, these barbarians. They act like they’ve never had fire thrown at them before. Pansies. The Legionnaire hit the floor, writhing and moaning as she tried to slap at her own face to put out the flames.
Realizing I no longer had anyone looking after me, Alverd bashed another Legionnaire out of his way and appeared by my side. He looked at me with his piercing ice blue eyes and his windswept hair (Was there wind in here? How is his hair doing that?) and stood before me in all his chivalric glory, the paragon of knighthood come to rescue me. He gently pulled me back to my feet. I’d swoon, but at this point I’m not sure if I could do it in his direction. Was standing always this hard? I think I’d remember if it was.
When he spoke, his voice was the only thing that didn’t cause me immediate pain. “Excuse me, Sheena. Are you alright?” I giggled like a smitten little girl, my half-functioning brain unable to control itself. The one time you need to be in control of yourself, and you’re hammered like a blacksmith’s anvil. You were a queen, act like it!
I wanted to say, “now that you are here, good sir knight”, But what came out of my mouth was more like a series of mumbles and drooling incoherence with some drunken tittering. He folded his right arm around me, pulled me tight against him, and held up his shield to cover my head. “Stay with me. Things are becoming a little hectic in here.”
I could die a happy woman right now, I thought as I felt his warmth, even as my cheek pressed against the cold steel of his breastplate. Gods, can you hear me? This is all I’ve ever wanted. I burped, and when I giggled again at the absurdity of it all I could taste bile in my mouth.
All around, mercenaries and soldiers continued their bar brawl with great enthusiasm. The discipline and tactics of the Legionnaires met the camaraderie and anything-goes fighting of the Noble Wolves. It was a surprisingly even fight, with no one side seeming to have any real advantage, even temporarily. The Legionnaires tried to maintain a tight formation to avoid being overwhelmed, but they were being assailed on all sides by the Wolves, who, true to their namesakes, were swarming around them.
In the middle of the crowd, Yuzuruha threw a Legionnaire to the ground and then jumped up in the air, landing on his face elbow first and then crushing him with the entire weight of her armored body. Kuro was now throwing more of his flaming bottles with wild abandon from behind the bar while laughing like a maniac. Alicia was being grappled by two Legionnaires, but she kicked one of them in the head before yanking the one grabbing her from behind over her shoulder and slammed him onto the ground.
I looked up at the beautiful, beautiful, perfect knight still shielding me, an oasis in a sea of uncivilized chaos, and he took my breath away. I cleared my throat, tried to suppress the surge of sickness, and enunciated carefully. “Is… Is it always like this?”
He smiled and it made me feel like the world had finally achieved perfection in earthy form. My heart beat fast, and this time it had nothing to do with the alcohol. “Not always. Sometimes it gets downright unpleasant.” I sighed, then hiccuped, again tasting something nasty at the back of my mouth. Goddess Eternity, are you there? Please make this moment last forever.
Then a Legionnaire swung a bottle at Alverd’s head, and he went down. Still in his embrace, I went down with him. He hit the ground hard, me on top of him. His eyes fluttered, unfocused. The Legionnaire looked at the now broken glass in his hand, and then at Alverd, and grinned. He pulled his arm back to strike.
Something about this caused an already fragile chain to snap deep in my heart. With no restraint or reason to stop me, all I could see was this filthy barbarian gloating over his cheap shot, and his desire to kill this specimen of physical perfection with something as uncouth as a broken bottle. Not on my watch. You get your disgusting hands away from my champion.
I pointed my staff at the Legionnaire. It took me a second for my eyesight to clear enough to realize that I was not holding it. In the back of my mind, I remembered it was still leaning against the wall behind me, and what I was actually pointing at the Legionnaire was my middle finger, using a foul gesture that Alicia had assured me was universal, and certainly not Ishmarian in origin. Based on the Legionnaire’s reaction, I now knew that to be untrue, because he gave me a rage-filled shout and turned his weapon on me.
My fingers twisted, no longer insinuating that his bird should be inverted (what a dumb way to insult people) but now assuming the motions of a spell. As the Legionnaire pulled his arm back to thrust, the air grew cold around my fingertips. In an instant a shard of ice as long and thick as my arm solidified into being and with a flick of my pointer finger shot forward and into the narrow space between his helmet and breastplate, embedding itself in his throat.
He choked, his eyes bulging, as the long shard penetrated far enough to exit partially out the back of his neck. He had enough time to reach futilely for the shard before his eyes rolled up into his head and he pitched backward, a long gurgle his final word. When he hit the ground, everyone nearby backed away, and suddenly it became deathly quiet in the tavern.
Within seconds, the fight stopped. All eyes were on the dead Legionnaire, blood already pooling under his head. I shambled forward swaying as I fought to maintain my balance. I looked at all the people in the tavern, Ishmarians, Kierhaians, my comrades, who were all staring at me. I burped again, then grit my teeth.
“I’ll only say it once. Keep your fucking hands off my man.” And with that, I hunched over and projectile vomited the contents of my stomach across the floor. My stomach thoroughly evacuated, I then fell over to my right and blacked out.
When I came to some time later, it was in a tent. I was lying in a bedroll with a blanket thrown over me. My head was still hurting, but at least I was no longer nauseous. With some effort, I pushed myself upright. Through the tent flap, I could see a camp full of Noble Wolf mercenaries, most of them being tended to by medics who were patching up cuts, scrapes and bruises. Yuzuruha came in sporting a bandage on her face under her left eye, which now had a purplish bruise forming under it.
“Good ta see yer awake. Yer friends were worried about ya.” She helped me up, and thankfully my legs were able to steady me this time. “Had to pick ya up and drag ya out of there kinda fast. I’m afraid things are a lot worse than we thought.” She brought me outside. Based on the fact that I could see the moon in the sky, it had only been a short time since the bar fight had ended.
The Noble Wolves’ encampment was a large open air fort cordoned off from the rest of the city by stone walls, making it a fort within a fort. The encampment had a modest armory, medical tent, a barracks for permanently quartered mercenaries, and a building where clients would go to hire out the Wolves’ services. In the middle of the camp, six wagons were being prepped for departure, and I could see Kuro, Alicia and Alverd by them.
Kuro was unharmed miraculously. He waved at me, his teeth flashing as he showed no remorse for any of his actions. Alicia had a number of bandages on her arms and upper body but nothing too serious, and her customary scowl had reappeared. Alverd, on the other hand, was leaning heavily against the side of the wagon, a set of bandages wrapped around his head. There was a concerning red smear on the side where he had taken the bottle, and my heart sank with guilt when I saw it.
Alverd held up his hand to stop me before I could say anything. “Don’t worry about me, Sheena. It’ll take more than a bottle to the head to take me out. Although I did lose consciousness for a moment.” A part of me was glad that he had not been witness to my outburst after he’d been hit, but the other half was disappointed. You finally managed to confess how you feel, albeit in a clumsy way, and he wasn’t even able to hear it. It figures, I suppose.
Already climbing into the wagon, Kuro made an impatient sound. “Hey, less bellyaching and more moving. We need to be out of this city now. The death of a Legionnaire is going to cause shockwaves through the entire city, and if we mean to slip the lawful authorities we gotta be gone before they figure out what happened.” He leaned down and helped Alicia into the wagon.
She glowered at me before taking a seat. “Make sure to check yourself, Sheena. Wouldn’t want to lose anything that belongs to you.” I felt a cold sweat on my forehead when she said that, her merciless eyes boring holes into me. Goodness. All may be fair in love and war but it’s still quite the catty affair. Yuzuruha pushed me up onto the wagon before hauling herself into it.
I nervously looked at Alverd who seated himself behind Alicia and next to me. He saw me staring and I chuckled nervously. “So, how did I do on my first day of being a mercenary?” I braced myself.
To my relief, he smiled at me. “All things considered, not bad. I’ve definitely seen worse.”
Ahead of us, the gate to the encampment opened, the double wooden doors bearing the guild symbol of the howling wolf. The wagon ahead of us didn’t even start moving before a small army of men, dressed in the same Kierhaian iron armor as the men at the gate, shuffled in and barred the way. One of them, with a helmet that had two long pheasant feathers protruding from a prop on the top, along with a pair of golden wings on its sides, came up to our wagon.
He saw us and held up a scroll of parchment, which he looked at, then squinted at me. “Yes, that’s her. By the authority of the Stalwart, guardian of Standing Stone, I hereby place you under arrest. You’re to surrender your arms and come with me.”
Behind me, Kuro swore viciously, and for the first time, I finally began to understand the cynicism behind his Cardinal Rules.