Chapter 119: A battle of Sincerity [unedited]

“Break for a while!”

The break time came while I was lost in thought. 

I got off the horse.

Let’s go to Eunice.

When I went to her carriage, she was nowhere to be seen. The attendant, who was busily taking care of the horse, said that she went for a short walk. 

I sighed silently. It was dangerous for her to be alone. Because there were mercenaries in the procession. 

It was true that the procession was organized carefully, and the mercenaries were placed in the back row. Even more, I knew the fact that they were warned that if they touched the knights or other party, they would be punished severely. However, in this life, if there were a group of people, there were at least one or two who are rotten. That was for sure. 

Besides, not everyone knew Eunice’s face.

And as I expected, when I found Eunice, a couple of rotten mercenaries surrounded her.

“Let go of me! Let go!”

“Let go of me~! Are you acting hard-to-get? How cute!”

The men around her giggled seeing her trying to break loose.

“Stop.”

As I spoke, their eyes turned in my direction.

“Ah, there is one more pretty girl.”

These punks, they didn’t even know my face.

“Let go of this girl, and go back to your place.”

“What? Why are you giving orders all of a sudden?”

“Because it’s my right to order you.”

“What nonsense….hiiikk!’

Someone appeared behind me. And those mercenaries were terrified. 

I glanced back for a brief second. “Kwonter, please cut me some slack.”

“I hope you don’t run around alone.”

To be honest, I didn’t really need Kwonter’s help unless I was fighting the monsters. On the battlefield, even though I was a mage, I still needed him because my physical ability was lacking compared to the trained battle mage. 

“What are these guys?

These mercenaries didn’t know my face, but they seemed to recognize Kwonter’s face. So they tried to retreat. 

“Uh-hum… we didn’t know it was Kwonter’s woman.”

Kwonter looked tired, “She’s my employer.”

“I, I see… Then, excuse me….”

“You want to go? How daring.”

They were so daring to assault Eunice, yet they expect they would be excused? It was not up to them to go!

Kwonter seemed to have a similar opinion. He grabbed one of the mercenaries by the shirt collar with one hand and lifted him up. He did it as if he had done that countless times.

“It seems that I have to teach you the manners you have to keep in this work through your body. That way you won’t forget it, right?”

“We won’t do that again—hukkk!”

“Wait a minute Kwonter.”

“Well… is it too for a noble lady?” Kwonter seemed to be trying to be considerate.

“No, my heart is not so weak.”

I approached Eunice, and spoke softly. “Lady Eunice, You’d better close your eyes.”

Eunice’s eyes have been wide open in shock. When I asked her that, she nodded her head. 

“Yes, yes..”

When I saw her close her eyes tightly, I covered Eunice’s ears and nodded to Kwonter.

“Now, do it.”

“Is it kindness? Or cruelness?”

Kwonter had an absurd expression on his face for a moment. Then he immediately swung his fist at the mercenary he was holding. 

Bam!

A hitting sound rang out. Then the other mercenaries were also hit one by one. The cheeks of the mercenaries were swollen. 

As the hitting stopped, I let go of my hand from Eunice’s ears. Then I stood in front of them. “Now, look at my face.”

“Ye..yes….”

“When carrying out a request, you should remember who you shouldn’t bite.”

I was used to this kind of work. The Knights of Heilon always said ‘the miss at that time was soo…’ every time they recalled the time when I was in charge of the 2nd and 4th walls. How could they speak of me like that for nothing?

“If this happened again, we could try this for your end.” I smiled and pretended to slit my throat.

“….” the mercenaries’ shoulder trembled. 

I vaguely heard Kwonter mumbling in the back “Is blackmail Heilon’s specialty? This really similar to Duke Heilon.”

Right, he muttered something like that. But I’ll pretend I didn’t hear that.

***

After many twists and turns, we arrived at the marquis estate. 

The place that suffered substantial damage was a small village at the end of Marquis territory, which was close to the forest. That was also why other villages had casualties as the monsters in the forest went wild after the appearance of the deadland. They lived close to the forest.

After a day’s rest at the marquis castle, we went to the most troublesome village.

“Oh my…”

A man clicked his tongue seeing the devastated village. He must be part of the researchers who were sent by the Academy to study darkness. 

I looked around. The solid of the ground was black and looked dead. It was a startling sight. 

“Ah…”

Because it was a village, of course, there were human bodies. But when I touched it very lightly, it became powdery and scattered. It seemed that it’s barely maintained its shape. 

“Ughh-..”

From a distance, I heard the sound of someone throwing up. When I turned my head, I saw Eunice was curled up while holding an earthenware. 

Right, seeing it for the first time would be very stimulating.

“We can’t recover the body.” I muttered as I watched the ashes scatter.

“That’s one of the problems.”

Sigren was approaching.

“Your Highness, what is our plan next?”

“We would take this place as our base and subdue the monsters in the nearby forest.”

“I’m going to participate right?”

“I think it would be better if the researchers have Lady Fiona in their team.”

The job of Eunice and the researchers from the academy was to investigate the dead land. And now the researchers from the academy have started diligently exploring this and that. I hope something good comes out.

On the other hand, the other troops, including Sigren, have to subdue the berserk monsters in the forest.

I looked up at Sigren and smiled. 

“Your Highness, we must distinguish between private and public affairs.”

Then I whispered softly in his ear. 

“That is not where I should be. You know that, right?”