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Chapter 8
“Captain Petchenik, there’s a very famous healer right here. Can we recruit her?”
“Oh, sure, sure. We actually need one.”
The handsome middle-aged man at the neighboring table answered immediately.
“……?”
Shurin was too stunned to speak.
They know each other?
What on earth are these people?
“Wow! Nice to meet you. I’m Erica.”
The little fairy-like girl even held out her tiny hand.
Shurin shook it almost absentmindedly, as if she were under a spell, before suddenly coming back to her senses.
“W-Wait, what is going on? I never said I would join your mercenary group.”
“We’ll offer you the best treatment in the industry. Captain Petchenik, is that okay?”
“Of course. We’ve got more than enough money anyway.”
“No…”
Shurin put a hand to her forehead.
I must have accidentally gotten involved with some crazy scam group.
Or maybe they’re some kind of heretical cult.
“Look, even if I seem like this, I’m not someone who just joins any random group.”
“We aren’t a mercenary group that accepts just anyone either.”
“Shouldn’t you at least explain your mercenary group first?”
“Um… Captain Petchenik, what’s our mercenary group’s name?”
“I don’t know. Petchenik Mercenaries, I guess?”
“Our name is Petchenik Mercenaries. There are eight members, and they all have strong free wills, so we don’t really know where they are right now.”
“……”
“At the moment, I’m recruiting members because I’m extremely bored. Captain Petchenik, is that okay?”
“Sure. I can’t stand being bored.”
“We’re also planning to take over the mercenary guild representing the entire southern Empire by force soon. Captain Petchenik, is it okay to say things like that?”
“Sure. Go ahead.”
“These crazy people…”
Their ambitions are certainly impressive…
Shurin hurriedly covered her mouth when she realized that her thoughts and spoken words had come out in opposite order.
Erica giggled.
Whether or not the cute little fairy laughed, Shurin decided she needed to make her position very clear if she wanted to escape this situation.
“I see. So you’re planning to take over the southern mercenary guild… In that case, maybe I’ll join you when you do.”
She had spoken without thinking.
She didn’t believe a single word of this crazy, scam-like mercenary group’s boasting.
Healer Shurin thought she would never see these people again.
And she certainly never expected to treat any of them herself.
Years passed.
The seasons changed.
Then changed again.
Petchenik and his mercenary group traveled through countless cities and villages.
During that time, Erica gained countless experiences.
Battles on land, at sea, and even in the air.
She had narrowly escaped death several times.
Enough years passed for the little girl to grow into a veteran S-rank mercenary.
In the southern region, she had no real opponent among people her age.
Erica believed that this wasn’t because she herself was exceptionally talented.
It was because her Master’s teaching was simply superior.
She trusted and relied on Petchenik.
He was her Master.
And he was her father.
A good and wonderful father, although those words sometimes seemed to be removable depending on the situation.
“I’m disappointed. You really were a foolish man. Wouldn’t it have been better if you’d simply accepted defeat?”
“Ugh… cough!”
“I’m trying to let you go peacefully, so why did you drag the merchant guild into this and make things such a mess? Hmm?”
Even on the day they crushed the head of the southern mercenary guild and took over its guild building—
“You look like a villain, Master.”
Erica stood beside Petchenik.
Boom!
Her long hair was tied high on her head, and smooth, well-developed muscles covered her arms and legs.
It was hard to even remember what she had been like long ago.
The pitiful little girl who had once been abused by the Countess in her shabby, weak body was gone.
“Don’t learn bad things.”
“I already learned them.”
Whoosh.
She spun the longsword in her right hand once.
“You told me to learn everything.”
Her eyes were lively, and she wore a relaxed smile.
Erica had become an exceptionally powerful warrior.
Erica, 18 Years Old
Erica’s beauty had fully blossomed.
For a mercenary who spent her days rolling around in mud, appearance was practically useless.
Yet Erica was unusually beautiful.
Petchenik and the other members of the mercenary group found it strange.
Despite spending her childhood doing all kinds of rough and dangerous mercenary work, her skin remained incredibly white and flawless.
Even her ordinary brown hair, a color common among commoners, had a strangely light shade that made her look pure and delicate.
When she tied her long hair high, it revealed her pale neck and made her look particularly graceful and fragile.
However, there were no clueless idiots left in the southern mercenary world who would approach her simply because of her appearance.
They didn’t want to end up in a hospital bed.
Erica was quite famous in the southern mercenary world.
There was even a saying:
“If you mess with Erica, Erica will destroy you first, and the Guild Master will destroy you second.”
The Guild Master, Petchenik, was her Master.
Although they called each other Master and disciple, they were practically like father and daughter.
Even now, there were people who mistook Petchenik for her actual father.
It was understandable.
Erica had inherited many of his traits.
For example—
“Where do you think you’re going?!”
Grab!
“We still have this much alcohol left!”
“E-Erica, let’s stop drinking now.”
“Why… why won’t you drink with me? Do you hate me? You hate me?! Explain for just two hours why you have to go home right now!”
“Ah, we’re screwed. Someone go get Shurin.”
She absolutely loved alcohol.
And she firmly believed that alcohol should always be enjoyed together with her fellow mercenaries.
After completing a job, she had to spend the entire night drinking and talking with the guild members at a tavern before she could feel properly rested.
She also loved fun and was extremely curious.
She was impulsive and couldn’t resist doing whatever she wanted.
All of those traits were exactly like her Master.
And she was still like that.
“Breaking news! Breaking news!”
Bang!
The front door of the mercenary guild suddenly flew open.
“The merchant guild has been attacked! Just now!”
“What?!”
“Looks like the inheritance dispute in the Daengterus Merchant Guild finally exploded!”
“Hey, hey! Let’s go see!”
“Yaaah! There’s no way I can resist watching a fight!”
Rumble!
The immature group of mercenaries rushed outside, each trying to get there first.
And naturally—
“Whoa, Erica! Where are you going?”
“Guys, are you stupid?”
Erica was there too.
She was completely drunk.
“We can get there faster if we jump across the rooftops!”
Laughing loudly, Erica climbed up the side of a building and lightly jumped onto the rooftop.
Whoosh.
Her hair fluttered in the wind.
The feeling of being suspended in the air was always thrilling.
Tap, tap.
She kicked off the edge of the building and jumped across to the next roof.
Whoosh!
Tap, tap, tap!
It was the fastest way to travel directly to the merchant guild.
Straight across the rooftops.
High above the ground.
“Yes.”
“……”
“Then?”
“……That’s all that happened.”
“Good grief!”
Shurin slapped Erica’s back several times.
“Ow! Ow! That hurts!”
“What do you mean, it hurts?! I’m a delicate healer with soft little hands! How could that possibly hurt?”
“It does hurt! I have a bruise there!”
“Of course you do! You fell straight from the roof of a five-story building!”
“So what?!”
“Are you proud of falling because you were drunk? Are you proud of smashing into the ground?!”
“I’m proud that I only got a bruise! I fell from that height and didn’t even break a single bone—”
“Good grief!”
“Eek!”
While loudly complaining about the pain, Erica continued eating bread with one hand.
She had spent the whole day without eating because she was suffering from both a hangover and a concussion.
She was starving.
She stuffed another piece of bread into her mouth and complained.
“The other guild members are already teasing me about it. It’s embarrassing.”
“They’re teasing you?”
“I’m an S-rank mercenary, you know. Do you think it’s pleasant to end up in such an embarrassing situation because I got drunk?”
“You know what embarrassment is?”
“Of course I do. You were so firm about never signing a contract with our mercenary group. But then, the moment our Master took over the southern guild, you completely changed your attitude and stamped your signature on the contract. I was embarrassed for you too.”
“……Why are you bringing up something that happened so long ago?”
“By the way, do you have any strawberry jam?”
“Why would there be strawberry jam in a treatment room?”
Even while talking, Erica continued eating the bread greedily.
She even carefully spread butter on it before eating.
Bang!
Suddenly, the treatment room door was thrown open.
“Gasp.”
Erica hurriedly tried to hide the bread she had left.
The words written on the wall suddenly seemed enormous:
<NO EATING IN THE TREATMENT ROOM. FINE: 2 SILVER>
