Volume 11 Chapter 1 (1/2)

The Contract with the Mercenaries

Translator: Skythewood

Editor: Ainz Ooal Gown, Darkdhaos

When Latreille ordered the assassination, and the tent was set on fire——

A place one hill away It was almost dawn, but the hills were still dark

Regis walked inside the forest

And of course, his feet and head were attached to his torso just fine

“Hah… Hah… How tiring…”

“So fast! We haven’t walked 30 minutes yet!? And you call yourself a soldier!?”

Walking on his right was Franziska She had a short crossbow in her hand

Fanrine on her left glared at her Naturally, she wasn’t a mutilated corpse, and didn’t have any wounds on her skin at all

“How rude!? Sir Regis took part in an intense battle in the day, it’s only natural for him to be tired”

“Hah! Isn’t it norht? Like I said, aristocratic ladies are really…”

“Ara ara, I thought this was a faht is normal huh”

“As expected, I should just kill you! Big Sis, is that fine!?”

The wo in front of the back:

“ Right noe need the help of Sir Auric This is for the sake of saving big brother”

Regiswith theuard his own life, but for Fanrine’s sake too He was ada to assist them if Fanrine was harmed

Franziska pouted

“But this wo!”

“ I won’t repeat myself”

“Ugh”

Franziska shut herJessica’s cold reply

Regis shrugged

“Even if I’oals”

“ It will succeed”

“You are really confident huh?”

“ I don’t think you want to be killed by oals If Sir Auric helps us, it will definitely succeed”

“Aren’t you overesti me?”

“ This is the best way… The stars tell me so”

She muttered as she looked up to the sky

Regis nodded as if he was impressed

“I see”

“Stars?” Fanrine tilted her head

Thatwas that they didn’t encounter any sentries

They should be able to leave the camp just like this

Regis looked around him

Walking in front of them was Jessica, besides hiroup guarded the outside, advancing cautiously

Franziska said cockily:

“Big Sis is awesoician”

“The sentries are gone, what kind of spell is that?”

In response to Regis’ question, Jessica answered

“ Bribery”

“What a realistic ic”

“ It is effective”

“Is that so? If they took the et double the reward Wouldn’t that work better?”

“ I sent out scouts, and I will know if anything see”

Even though she used a stratageht be the basics of basics, but her arrangement was careful and adequate

As expected of the strategist of Renard Pendu

After that—— She added

“ Those things should buy us some time”

“You mean the headless corpses?”

Regis sighed again

That was the body of a guard, which got disguised as Regis As their stature was too different, Franziska mutilated the corpse horribly Jessica was the one who came up with this scheme

If Regis had a choice, he would have objected

But now, for his own sake—— and also to protect the woman by his side, he didn’t oppose in the end

If he resist too is Even a corpse could be used in negotiation There were otiations

Fanrine said sadly:

“Even so… was it really necessary… to do such is?”

Was there no other way?

Regis didn’t know either

Maybe no one will visit the tent untilEven if he left on his own, the mission to recapture Grebauver was already done, so there wouldn’t be too much problems

However, after Regis dissect his own situation objectively, he realized that the chance he would be assassinated was very high

Fanrine thought so too

Jessica was absolutely certain that ‘there is no reason to let you return alive’ That hy she used the corpse as a body double

“ If it can delay the search party fro”

“It’s quite difficult to ith this on”

Regis borrowed the unifor, about two sizes too large

Fanrine had several dresses, and earing another one right now

The body double would be exposed by investigating it a little After all, even the gender was different

Regis suddenly asked:

“How many scouts did you send out?”

“ Two”

“I see”

In that case, there was a chance they would be discovered—— Regis thought

A sht not find a sroup of sentries If the sentry was better than the scouts, they roup instead

During a time like this, they should let four people walk ahead of them, just within earshot

Shortly later, Regis’ prediction turned true

“Hey, halt!”

The person who eed from the shadow under the woods was an Imperial soldier

He was just a light infantry, but he had the uniform of the Imperial First Army There were four of them

Three of them stood in front, the one behind didn’t have a sword, but a whistle They appeared well trained

The person in front drew his sword

“Jackpot!”

Another one of them said

Seeroup behind

The soldier asked intily:

“From your clothes, you are mercenaries!? Who are you people!? How did you co!?”

“ I should be asking you, you are not soldiers based here right?”

Jessica answered caluts

Even though the mercenaries around her and even Franziska looked tense

And of course, Regis was nervous too

He looked to the left, and Fanrine was s for some reason

—— Eh!?

“A-Aren’t you scared?”

When she heard Regis’ whispers, she answered confidently:

“Of course not Sir Regis is here after all”

“Eh——”

Now she otiator

Regis raised a hand

“Erm, sorry, can you wait?”

The soldier with the sword looked towards the suspicious character

“Hah, so you are a regular soldier Where are you going with your strange companions at such a time? State your unit”

“Well… I am from the Imperial Fourth Arht now…”

The soldier’s expression twisted ly

“Don’t spout nonsense! Why would we borrow troops from our political adversary, the Fourth Princess!? And the Fourth Army are just a motley bunch of defeated soldiers and farmers!”

That was really mean

“Ara, but I was asked by the Field Marshall”

“Field Marshall? Eh, the Field Marshall!? How insolent!”

The other party got even is scratched his head

Fanrine stepped forward

“Insolent you say…? Which unit are you from?”

“What, a woman!?”

“I am General Affairs Officer Fanrine Veronica de Tiraso Laverde The Ministry of Military Affairs sent me”

“What!?”

The blood drained from the soldier’s face

As the command system for the Ministry of Military Affairs and the Military were separate, it wasn’t right to say that the General Affairs Officer ranked higher

But the Ministry of Military Affairs was in charge of promotions and bonuses, soldiers wouldn’t want to leave a bad impression on them

Urged by her, Regis took out a parch on his shoulder

It was Latreille’s written orders

“I don’t really want to show this to others but…”

His heart felt heavy when he thought about this

The soldiers stared wide eyed at the parchment

“Eh… Auric…? I-Iuided this war to victory, the unist…?”

“I ah”

“T-Then you really are…?”

“Yes, but I only have this on h”

Regis shrugged

Fanrine narrowed her eyes

“Are you tellingus back to the basecanorance, and his identity is proven to be true, how are you going to take responsibility for this? Athe et away from this scot free?”

“Ugh…”

“It’s another matter if we didn’t have any Identification Documents on us, but you have already seen the appointned by the Field Marshall and you are still doubting us? I should be the one questioning your allegiance”

“No, we are light troopers from the 36th infantry…”

The soldiers started to panic

Jessica asked once again:

“ What are you all doing in a place like this?”

In this era, her status than wo in a lofty tone was rare

The soldiers looked baffled and had a displeased expression

However, they would be punished if the is

The trooper holding the whistle at the back stuck it back onto his waist pouch and answered:

“A guy from my unit said that there would be a reward if we capture suspicious characters passing through here”

“ How ?”

“Well, if I caught the debts”

They were betrayed

Jessica frowned instantly

And muttered

“ To sell us out for just this much… How foolish”

No is said to them:

“Sorry, but we have to carry out a special mission Please keep your encounter with us here a secret”

“Y-Yes”

They answered with a salute

Regis returned the salute

“Well then… Please ilance”

“Understood!”

The soldiers turned to leave

Phew, Regis exhaled in relief

Fanrine patted her chest too

Jessica pointed at the soldiers wordlessly

——What?

Franziska braced her short crossbow silently too

Regis yelled out without thinking:

“You all——!?”

chink, with soft metallic thud, a short metallic bolt flew out from Franziska hands It pierced the throat of a soldier from behind

They are sealing their throats!?

The other mercenaries dashed forth at almost the same instant

“!?”

“What, you——!?”

The soldiers tried to draw their blades, but every mercenary in Renard Pendu were elites And the six of thee of the element of surprise

Even the soldiers of the Ile round

The one soldier who ed to block the first bloas also killed before he even got the chance to scream

“I already… believed… you…”

He fell after spewing blood

Jessica looked down at him with cold eyes

“ How foolish to weigh your doubts and trust on the same scale Trust is water, doubt is h to turn clear water muddy”

The sight of the soldiers’ dead bodies made Fanrine lash out

“W-Why!? Why do you have to kill them!? This is too much…!”

“ Keep your voice down It will be troublesome if the other sentries notice us Or do you want the number of bodies to increase?”

“No…”

Fanrine said timidly

But Jessica had already moved ahead

Urged on by the is also strode forth This wasn’t a place for theer in the first place

If they let the soldiers leave like this—— What would they do after returning to their unit?

Would they obey Regis’ instruction and keep their encounter a secret? Regrettably, such a possibility was very low

Neould probably reach Latreille in no time

The body double trick would then becoless, and they would know the direction of their flight Theytowards the capital

—— Sealing their throat wasn’t less But…

Regis sighed

“Even so, there are ways that doesn’t involve killing them…”

Jessica narrowed her eyes and stared at him

“ As expected of your style”

“What do you mean?”

“ I heard Sir Auric’s personality isn’t like a soldier at all… ‘He wants to even spare the enemy’ Isn’t that hypocritical? Since you support the Fourth Princess, this will turn into a civil war one day”

“But I want to avoid unnecessary death as much as possible”

“ You… think that the killings earlier was unnecessary?”

“Maybe”

“ Even though the people you kill always numbered in the thousands, but you think that the handful of er your life, there wouldn’t be any reason to let theo That’s hypocrisy”

“Of course I know that it is inevitable when the situation calls for killing others in order to survive But ‘not willing to kill even at the peril of one’s life’—— are things only those who didn’t need to kill and in a position of safety would say”

“ Seems like you believe those soldiers would keep your tracks a secret? How laughable You actually survived this long with such pedantry”

“No, I think they will report it”

“Then…”

“It’s fine if they report That will be a good feint Prince Latreille would definitely think I escaped and pursue us Since his actions would be knoe can make use of that”

“ I think the best strategy is to not let them knoe escaped”

“Is that so? Can you guarantee that the body double disguise won’t be seen through?”

“ Then we should act with the assumption that it had been seen true”

“You have a cautious personality, so that’s what you would do In that case, on’t need to change our course of action even if those sentries reported back right?”

“ If it wasn’t seen through, then killing them would improve our safety It’s better to be safe”

“Really? Instead of killing theive yourself peace ofothers to make yourself feel less uneasy”

“……”

It was rare seeing Jessica not answering

As she alking ahead, her expression could not be seen

“ For us, there is no reason to let the Belgarian soldiers leave alive We will kill any ene you”

“You are ht now, correct?”

“ Yes… Because of that… Everyone other than us are enemies To make us an ally, there needs to be a contract”

“I see Well then, let’s sign a contract”

“ The joke's not funny Don’t kid with me”

Jessica’s voice turned stern

The faces of the rew sinister

Franziska pointed her short crossbow his way

“Reist We mercenaries risk our lives to work! If you h to kill you!”

Regis scratched his head

“Not at all Does it look like I a ht now I don’t like to lie and I’ you all After all, there is no one more reliable than you here”

Jessica went back on topic

“ You are our prisoner Just a negotiation chip, not a negotiation subject”

“You want to negotiate by using —— correct?”

“Yes… Just from your merits in this battle, this is definitely possible Thank you for accoful right?”

Her lips turned up in a smile

“Ahh, speaking of which, the sudden withdrawal of theup the battle”

“ If your faotiation chip”

“You want to sell me a favour—— That’s what you mean? If the battle continued, it would be difficult to withdraw—— that’s your judgeht?”

“ In a serious fight, the nuht?”

“I already have a plan for this”

And she ot access to Regis’ study rooing the sheets

Jessica didn’t reveal her true intention

Although the basics of negotiation includes letting the other party believe you weren’t lying, co your true intention wasn’t a mistake

Jessica was planning to reorganize the h her true intentions—— It was probably why she needed to put up such an act

However, Regis didn’t back down Even if the mercenary had a blade to his neck, he can’t submit so meekly

“The price for losing your credibility at Grebauver isn’t cheap”

“ Is that so? What has that got to do with you?”

“Of course it does I a with you after all—— that battle is watched by many countries With the battle on the line, the Renard Pendu mercenary corps withdrew fro nations saw this scene clearly”

“ So?”

“What are your plans after getting back the e?”

“ Elder brother will figure out what follows”

“Do you think any country will hire abetrayal?”

“ You underestimate the capability of the Renard Pendu mercenary corps If Elder brother returns, ill——”

“During the attack on Fort Volks, you retreated in just one night Despite being equipped with the latest e, you still lost the supply unit And in Grebauver, you all deserted when the battle was still at an ile for a good price?”

He laid out his negotiation chips

Jessica glared at hirily

“ Isn’t that all your doing?”

“Well, I don’t deny that”

They could win all their battle except the ones against Regis—— Even if they insist on this point, it would not repair their lost reputation

They entered the dense forest

“How about it? For me, I wish to return to Fort Volks safely, and would like the means of travel and protection Since you are sure that thewill return, you will need new eain your lost reputation correct?”

“……”

Jessica didn’t reply

Regis followed her as he waited for her reply

She didn’t answer immediately in the end

The group walked in the forest that was becoradually

At this moment, Franziska ere silent all this while raised a hand

“It’s everyone!”

The other mercenaries also looked relieved