Record of Wortenia War: Volume 2

by Ryota Hori

  One glance at the empty office put Ryoma under the illusion he’d just entered the estate of some grand noble or multi-millionaire. With the power of a man who reached the post of guildmaster laid bare before him, Ryoma could only click his tongue.

  “I apologize for the wait. Please, take a seat on the sofa over there.”

  As Ryoma’s group stood still at the room’s entrance, they could hear the relaxed voice of a man speak to them, accompanied by the sound of the door opening.

  “I thank you for coming over today.” Seeing Ryoma and the sisters sat down on the sofa, Wallace began by bowing his head politely.

  The guildmaster of a large city was bowing his head to low-level adventurers. That wasn’t a scene that would normally take place.

  This guy...

  Judging by Wallace’s attitude, Ryoma’s heart hardened with caution. On the surface, his attitude seemed to be the height of intelligent courtesy, and anyone who would look at this scene without any context would surely consider Wallace to be an upstanding person.

  However, if Wallace’s attitude right now was genuine, why did he hint to Laura that he might have their registrations erased?

  “Not at all. I’ve heard you had a request for us?” Ryoma asked, keeping his true feelings hidden. “I’m actually a bit unsure as to how we should answer a request from the guildmaster himself.”

  Choosing his words carefully so as not to commit to anything too soon, Ryoma probed at his intentions.

  “Yes, that’s right. There’s a matter that’s been a bit of a problem for me... I’d appreciate your cooperation with regards to resolving it.”

  So said Wallace, and began his explanation...

  Arrows fired from behind them zipped through the wind. Ryoma held the carriage door he’d torn from its hinges over his head like a shield. The sensation of the arrows piercing the wood reverberated through the door and into his hands.

  “I don’t care if it kills the damn horses, don’t lose any speed!”

  The highway was fairly well maintained, but since the carriage’s frame didn’t have a suspension system, it shook and rattled violently. Ryoma desperately maintained his posture, guarding Sara’s body from the deluge of arrows flying their way.

  But of course, a single door couldn’t block countless arrows. One arrow brushed against Ryoma’s left earlobe and hit the carriage’s wagon. Drops of red blood dripped down to the floorboards. Ryoma wiped his face in annoyance.

  “Master Ryoma!”

  “Shut up! Just be quiet and focus on handling the horses!”

  Shouting back at Sara, who raised her voice at the sight of his bleeding earlobe, Ryoma returned his focus to blocking the rain of arrows.

  He had no experience riding horses or driving a carriage, and so Sara, who now sat at the driver’s seat, was Ryoma’s lifeline. Her holding of the reins was their only means of survival right now. Even though those words were spoken out of genuine concern for him, they held no meaning for him at the moment. One wouldn’t need an overly active imagination to picture what fate would await them if this runaway carriage were to lose control.

  The frame of this carriage, pulled by four horses, was dyed black. It was also currently pierced with countless arrows like a pin cushion. If all Ryoma would need was to protect his own well-being, he could have easily taken refuge inside the wooden, canopied compartment, but the situation didn’t allow for it. The trajectory of the arrows from behind them flew in a parabolic curve over the compartment and toward the driver’s seat. Since Ryoma didn’t know how to manage the horses, all he could do was guard Sara.

  “God dammit! They’re still after us!” Ryoma spat out bitterly, glaring at the cloud of dust behind them.

  How long had it been since this deadly game of tag started? If the ones chasing them were bandits who were in it for the money, they’d have gone after the wagons they left behind in the ambush point, and if they were simply trying to silence them to hide the fact the raid happened, they were chasing Ryoma around too persistently. It almost felt like this attack was made with the objective of claiming Ryoma’s life...

  “Master Ryoma, I think this really is...” The look in Sara’s eyes seemed convinced.

  Ryoma only nodded wordlessly. It was a good thing they considered this possibility and planned accordingly.

  “That son of a bitch Wallace pulled a fast one on us... But now’s not the time to be dwelling on that...” Stifling the anger bubbling up in his heart, Ryoma kept his eyes fixed ahead. “Sara! We should be near where Laura and the others are hiding. Don’t miss the signal, no matter what!”

  “Yes!” Sara held on tight to the rampaging horses’ reins, whipping them to go forward.

  Desperately blocking the rain of arrows with his wooden shield, the conversation they’d had in the camp on that night seven days ago flashed through his mind.

  That day, a trade caravan departed from Pherzaad on a straight journey to Pireas, the capital of the Kingdom of Rhoadseria.

  Rhoadseria sat between Xarooda, the kingdom known as the land of iron which lay protected by steep mountains, and Myest, which included many of the continent’s greatest sea ports, including Pherzaad. The majority of the country was made up of plains, and the river Thebes blessed it with abundant water that enabled vast agriculture and farming which served as the country’s primary industries, making it one of the wealthiest countries in the western continent, second only to Myest with its ports.

  The contents of the compulsory request given to Ryoma and his group under the name of the guildmaster Wallace was the escort and protection of a trade caravan heading to one of the three great eastern countries, Rhoadseria. Ryoma reluctantly agreed to take the request after having been told that they would be joined by mercenaries who joined in for the money, but there were plenty of unnatural aspects to the job right from the start.

  For starters, they were gathered as guards for the caravan, but the carriage Ryoma and his group were given to sleep in was a decorated one with a canopy. It was a magnificent vehicle that was suitable enough to carry royalty and nobility, and not at all something adventurers and mercenaries would ride in.

  The next suspicious point was that while this was supposedly a trade caravan, all the wagons were completely empty. If some of them were empty to serve as decoys, that would be understandable, but all of them being empty made little sense. Since it had left a large trade port like Pherzaad, one would expect it would be stocked with many goods, and considering the merchants’ efficiency, there was little chance of them going out to trade empty-handed.

  But the merchants were another suspicious point. They all had very well-built, refined bodies, and their hands were dotted with solid calluses. One’s hands wouldn’t be like that without handling a sword daily. It was only natural Ryoma would feel apprehensive after he greeted the caravan leader with a handshake. True, life in this Earth wasn’t as safe as Japan, but they seemed far too proficient to use weapons only for self-defense.

  I think it’d be a good idea to make sure we have some guarantees this doesn’t blow up in our faces... Out of all the people they gathered, that red-headed woman looked like she’d be the most understanding.

  The image of one of the mercenaries, who was looked up at as a boss and older sister by her group, surfaced in Ryoma’s mind.

  With the first day of their journey over, the mercenaries who accepted the job of protecting the caravan sat in a circle around the fire, discussing things. The main topic was, of course, what they were to do about this suspicious caravan going forward.

  “I’ve been pretty dubious ’bout that, meself...” said Lione, the leader of the Crimson Lion group, with a slow shake of the head. “If nothin’ else, I ain’t never seen no caravan like this before.”

  She was an experienced mercenary, with a physique that towered over 180 centimeters in height and brown, tanned skin. Contrasting her supple, feline-like muscles, she also had a prominent bust, which declared proudly of her status as a woma
n. Her red hair reached shoulder-length, and complimented her golden eyes, which burned with strong will. Overall, she was an attractive woman that gave off the charm of a matured female.

  “We been in the mercenary business for a long time now, but it’s the first we’ve heard of anything like this.” So said Boltz, a man who looked to be thirty or so years old with short cut, black hair that had been brushed back. He served as Lione’s staff officer.

  His face looked rather tough, but his most distinctive feature was his missing left arm. Apparently he’d lost it in some previous battle, but from the impression Ryoma got during their first meeting, he seemed to have a fairly plain personality.

  “We’ve handled security for caravans before, but...”

  Boltz had served as a mercenary for even longer than Lione, and if he’d never run into this kind of job before, it was certainly suspicious.

  “And what’s... your take on it?” Lione turned to Ryoma, who was simply listening quietly until now.

  “Me? I’m honestly regretting I took this request...” Ryoma replied honestly.

  Something felt off about the whole thing from the very start, and apparently his hunch was correct. Looking back, he should have gone with his gut feeling and refused, even if it meant having their registrations erased. That regret reflected in the bitterness mixed in with his words.

  Lione and Boltz nodded at Ryoma’s response.

  “We took this job because the pay was good, but looks like this one’s a bust...”

  “Aye, it looks like we stuck our necks into somethin’ fishy.”

  These two, who had been mercenaries for many years, said their intuition was warning them that this was trouble. But there seemed to be some people around here who didn’t share that sentiment.

  “But Sis, we took this gig from the guild. Don’t you think you’re being too itchy about this?” One mercenary voiced his objection at Lione’s words.

  Hearing this mercenary, whose name he didn’t know, speak made Ryoma’s expression fill with scorn.

  I’m surprised this guy’s survived this long...

  This Earth was a place where death was much more of an everyday occurrence than Ryoma’s old world. Lione seemed to have thought the same thing as Ryoma.

  “Ya got rocks for brains? I’m surprised ya can function as a merc when you’re this oblivious to danger.”

  The man went red as Lione looked at him with cold, contemptuous eyes and shook her head.

  “What...!” He shouted. “Even you don’t get to talk to me like that, Sis!”

  Even with no sense for danger, he apparently had enough of a head on his shoulders to realize when he was being mocked. Lione shook her head with pity at the man’s temper, and Boltz’s lips contorted with disdain.

  “You’re a rank B, right? And sure, ya have the strength to back that rank. But when it comes to straight up judgment, that boy over there has ya beat.”

  Lione’s words prompted every mercenary present to turn their gazes in Ryoma’s direction.

  “It may’ve been me who called ya’ll here, but it’s this boy who spoke up first.”

  A stir rustled through the mercenaries.

  “Heh! Taking instructions from a kid like that? So much for Lione the Crimson Lion, I guess!” The man shouted with his face red. “The kid’s a damn novice! I dunno what the guildmaster’s thinking, sending an amateur like him to handle security! Who cares what a brat with no experience has to say?!”

  True, Ryoma was the youngest person present. He was sixteen years old, but his mature face made him appear to be in his mid-twenties; still, everyone around him was in their thirties at least. If his guild rank matched theirs, things would be different, but Ryoma was indisputably still a beginner with a rank of E, and to top things off, since he hadn’t gained thaumaturgy yet, he was still at level 0.

  It made sense for the mercenary to run his mouth at Lione after she humiliated him, but Lione wasn’t going to take him running his mouth sitting down, either. For mercenaries, nothing was more important than strength and honor. Anyone who backed down from another person treating them like a fool wouldn’t survive as a mercenary going forward.

  “Aaaah?! Didja forget who yer talking to here...?” Her voice was calm.

  But Ryoma could only see it as the calm before the storm, and apparently the other mercenaries felt the same way, as all the cheering that followed as he ran his mouth earlier had died down. A long silence fell over the place.

  “Fine. I understand how you all feel.” Boltz, who had thought now would be a good time to break the silence, soothed the strained air.

  None of them really wanted to antagonize the Crimson Lion’s captain, who held the most power in the group.

  “We haven’t really gained anything concrete out of this conversation anyway, so how about we break it up for today?”

  Accepting Boltz’s suggestion, the mercenaries got up hurriedly. Lione didn’t have any intention of arguing with them any longer, either, simply watching them retreat.

  “Well, ain’t this a shitty situation...” Lione muttered.

  Boltz and Ryoma both nodded at her words.

  There wasn’t much they could do about the mercenaries being dense, but letting their comrades die over that wasn’t acceptable, either.

  “Looks like we’ve got a nice little gallery of morons gathered up here...” Boltz said with a sigh.

  For how calm he seemed on the surface, the man had quite a bit of displeasure at their attitudes, it seemed.

  “No point bitchin’ ’bout it, though.” Lione nodded at his words. “If we don’t think of some counteraction in case things go south, we’ll be in trouble.” She then threw a probing glance in Ryoma’s direction. “What’re yer plans now, boy? Got any brilliant ideas?”

  “Well, for now I don’t think there’s much we can do but focus on the job. We can’t throw away the request just because things are a bit suspicious.”

  It was an official request they had accepted from the guild, and if they were to discard it without a valid reason, the guild would enforce severe penalties on them. Their hunch that it seemed suspicious wouldn’t be seen as valid grounds to resign from an official request.

  “Yeah, that makes sense. But boy... If there really is an angle to this whole request, what do you think it could be?”

  “Using us as bait to lure something or someone out, maybe. In which case, we should probably have some kind of backup plan ready.”

  He didn’t have any basis for this theory, but them being here to act as bait to draw out bandits felt like it fit everything they knew the most. Ryoma answered Lione’s words with a deep sigh.

  Ryoma knew full well something was off about this request. But all he could do was gain Lione’s support and make a backup plan as insurance in case things went south.

  Four days passed since the meeting with the mercenaries, and they didn’t run into a single problem during their journey. Not a single unwanted guest, bandit or monster, had descended on them.

  It was truly a safe, peaceful journey. And of course, if nothing happened, that was fine in and of itself. There were a few small clashes between Ryoma and the other mercenaries that weren’t part of Lione’s Crimson Lion group, but those were trifling matters.

  But Ryoma was convinced. The times which were most quiet were the ones heralding the coming of a storm...

  And on the afternoon of the seventh day after they left Pherzaad, Ryoma’s premonition proved to be correct.

  A rain of arrows descended upon them.

  It happened as they passed through a woodland near the border to Rhoadseria. Arrows were suddenly fired from the trees on both sides of the road.

  ““What the hell?!””

  ““Ambush!””

  “What are you doing?! Protect the horses!”

  As the soldiers raised their voices in panic, one of the merchants came out to scold them.

  “Calm down! Don’t break formation!”

  Warning
s left the lips of the mercenaries who were standing guard around the carriages. There were ten carriages overall in the caravan, with the merchants sitting at the driver’s seats. The mercenaries guarded them by riding alongside on horseback.

  Even experienced mercenaries would be taken aback when attacked by surprise, but Ryoma eyed the merchants suspiciously, as they seemed to be giving commands calmly despite the chaos around them.

  “Everyone, calm down! Hide yourselves from the arrows! Use boards, cloaks, whatever you can find! Cover your heads and block the arrows for as long as you can!”

  Their orders were perfect and precise. Though, when subjected to such a barrage of arrows, such a way of ordering the others around was probably ideal.

  “Master Ryoma!”

  “Yeah. Looks like it’s happening now. Everyone, listen up!” In contrast to the other mercenaries, Ryoma’s voice wasn’t trembling from surprise. “Just like we agreed to earlier, protecting the horses is top priority! Don’t mind anything else.”

  Ryoma had already predicted someone might attack the caravan, but there were still problems. Namely, the questions of who, when, and why they would have attacked.

  “You ready, Sara? Everything’s hanging in the balance here.”

  “Yes, I know. But Laura...”

  Ryoma nodded silently at Sara’s words. They’d checked the map ahead of time and noted this place would be the most apt point for an ambush, so they had already completed their countermeasures for the hypothetical attack. All that remained was to put that plan into action.

  “It’ll be fine. We can trust the mercenaries Lione placed with her...” Ryoma swung the spear in his hand, knocking down the incoming arrows. “The rest depends on how long we can keep them on our tail... Shit, I knew it was going to end up like this!”

  The carriage Ryoma and Sara were riding on was receiving far more arrow fire than the other ones. As proof, it only took a short time for Ryoma’s carriage to become so covered in arrows that it looked more like a pin cushion. This made the attackers’ intent clear.