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Chapter 7
First, Erica used a beginner’s wooden crossbow.
After that, she moved on to a longbow reinforced with leather.
The fingers she used to pull the bowstring developed countless blisters, which appeared and disappeared again and again.
Eventually, thick calluses formed and became so hard that they looked almost like extra knuckles.
Whoosh!
Thud!
It was much more fun than she had expected.
Every time she hit one of the targets Petchenik had set up, she felt an incredible thrill.
Erica had naturally excellent eyesight.
She could easily focus on objects even from far away.
This is fun.
The distance between her and the targets gradually became longer.
She was good at archery, and she genuinely enjoyed it, so there was hardly ever a day when she didn’t have a quiver of arrows on her back.
She even wanted to practice archery during her other training sessions.
When Petchenik temporarily banned her from using the bow, she secretly sneaked out at night and shot arrows to her heart’s content before quietly returning.
Even Petchenik didn’t scold her for that.
Instead, he decided that Erica apparently wasn’t getting enough sleep.
So he added nighttime sword training to her schedule.
Every single day.
She shot arrows and swung her sword.
Training began as soon as the sun rose, and even under the moonlight at night, she continued to sweat.
Erica was happy.
Erica’s combat abilities improved rapidly.
Because of this, she was sometimes allowed to travel through the mountains by herself.
Today was the first day she successfully hunted a bear.
Excited, she carried the bear over her shoulder and returned to the village inn.
“Little bear cub~ Turu-ru-turu~ So cute~ Turu-ru-turu~”
She hummed happily, eager to show off her achievement to her Master.
“Little bear cub!”
Thump!
She dropped the enormous bear onto the ground.
It was definitely not a baby bear.
Petchenik was visible in the distance.
Erica was about to proudly shout that she had hunted a bear, but—
“Uh…”
She realized that she should greet him first.
She timidly walked over.
“Master.”
“You’re back early.”
“Who’s this?”
There was an unfamiliar man standing beside Petchenik.
He was even bigger than the bear.
Compared to him, the bear Erica had worked so hard to hunt looked almost pathetic.
“Say hello. He’s joining our mercenary group starting today.”
“My name is Karon.”
“Hello. I’m Erica.”
The bear-like man had a solemn and determined expression as he introduced himself.
“I lost a duel against Captain Petchenik, so I accepted the result and decided to join the mercenary group.”
In reality, it hadn’t been a duel at all.
Petchenik had simply picked a fight with Karon because he was bored.
Naturally, Petchenik had defeated him overwhelmingly.
But Karon had lasted longer than expected, which interested Petchenik, so he invited him to join the group.
“I look forward to working with you.”
With his intimidating face, thick beard, and massive muscular body, Karon looked like a giant who could easily have been Erica’s uncle.
Most children would have been intimidated by him.
But Erica simply looked him up and down.
“Um, are your parents bears?”
How can someone’s body get that big?
Erica stared at him with innocent curiosity.
She even walked around Karon in circles, examining him.
“……?”
“Nice to meet you! Come to think of it, I’m a mercenary too. I completely forgot that Master and I have a mercenary group.”
“……??”
The new member, Karon, immediately felt that something was seriously wrong.
What kind of mercenary group forgets that they’re a mercenary group?
Did I make a mistake by signing the contract just because I was impressed by Captain Petchenik’s swordsmanship?
When Karon’s eyes began trembling with anxiety, Petchenik patted him hard on the back.
“Don’t worry. We simply haven’t started doing mercenary work yet. Our cute founding member has been busy training all this time.”
“I want to show this off.”
Cute little Erica dragged the bear over.
It was an enormous bear, about four times the size of her small body.
An arrow was lodged directly in the bear’s forehead.
“I split its head open with one shot.”
“Cough! Cough!”
Karon choked and started coughing.
The little girl, who was as small and cute as a squirrel, had a surprisingly rough way of speaking.
“Can I skin it?”
“Of course.”
“Yay~!”
Erica confidently pulled out her dagger.
Petchenik watched her with a satisfied expression and nodded.
“Erica.”
“Yes?”
“I was thinking of recruiting about ten mercenaries and taking over the southern guild. What do you think?”
“I don’t know what that means.”
“I want to take the head of a certain organization.”
“I’ll take it!”
“You can’t do that yet!”
“Tch!”
“What was that disrespectful look you just gave your Master?!”
“I’ll do it!”
Erica continued growing up with a fearless spirit.
After Karon joined them that day, Petchenik began recruiting independent mercenaries he liked, one by one.
However, mercenaries who met Petchenik’s extremely high standards were very rare.
“Nice to meet you.”
“I look forward to working with you.”
The mercenaries who joined from time to time were all exceptionally skilled.
They had completely different personalities and abilities, but every one of them was overwhelmed by Petchenik’s strength and showed him respect.
And then—
“Introduce yourself. Can you do a duck dance? I can drink beer while doing a handstand.”
“……What exactly is that little girl?”
The mercenaries were secretly frightened by Erica’s strange personality.
She was always stuck beside Petchenik like a keychain.
Daengterus, a Great City in the South
As a city where commerce was highly developed, the streets were crowded with people.
Day or night, the lights in the central district never went out, making it a city that was always brightly lit and full of activity.
There was a fairly large inn in the center of the square.
It was operated by the Daengterus Merchant Guild, so security was excellent and the place was well maintained.
The facilities were good enough that even lower-ranking nobles occasionally stayed there.
There was only one major disadvantage.
Because it was located in a busy area, it was noisy day and night.
Someone with sensitive hearing would have trouble sleeping there.
“Ughhh, it’s so noisy.”
Healer Shurin came downstairs after unpacking her belongings on the second floor of the inn.
The first floor was the dining hall.
Should I change inns?
The inns in the back alleys have too many thugs, so that’s not really an option…
There was nothing she could do.
Shurin shook her head and sat down at a table.
The food she had ordered earlier arrived quickly.
She took a spoonful of tomato stew.
It tasted decent.
The dining hall was crowded and noisy.
The tables were placed very close together so that the restaurant could accommodate as many customers as possible.
“……is ……right?”
The conversation at the table right next to her naturally reached Shurin’s ears.
“Erica, do you think you can keep this up until we reach the sea?”
“Yes! I’ll do my best. This is so much fun.”
There was a neatly dressed father and daughter sitting beside her.
In fact, saying they were merely neatly dressed wasn’t enough.
They were extraordinarily attractive.
Shurin secretly glanced at the neighboring table.
She kept sneaking looks at them until she was practically giving herself cross-eyed glances.
Are they nobles?
The father was a handsome, elegant middle-aged man with an unmistakably noble appearance.
The daughter was so adorable that Shurin almost wondered whether she was a fairy.
They must be nobles secretly experiencing life as commoners in Daengterus.
Shurin was delighted just looking at them.
After all, handsome people and cute children were the best.
She wanted to watch the noble-looking father and daughter for a little longer.
And then—
Whoosh!
The girl suddenly thrust out the hand holding her fork and tried to stab her father in the neck.
Clang!
The father knocked the fork away almost instantly.
His expression didn’t change at all.
Only Shurin, who had been watching them, was startled enough to drop her utensils.
“Erica. You’re not going to improve if you keep doing it like this. I suppose we’ll have to increase the intensity of your early-morning training.”
“If this restaurant had knives instead, I would’ve succeeded.”
“Blaming the weapon is a bad habit.”
“Don’t say that after refusing to buy me a weapon! How long am I supposed to keep carving wooden swords for myself?”
“Until you can touch even a single strand of my hair.”
“Ugh!”
The tiny girl, who only came up to her father’s waist, clenched her fists and glared.
What kind of conversation is that?
What on earth is happening at the table next to me?
Shurin blinked several times.
Then a shadow fell across her table.
A huge man sat down in the chair opposite her.
“I’ll join you. There aren’t any empty seats.”
He sat down before Shurin could even answer, leaving her no choice but to accept.
She awkwardly lowered her head and tried to eat her tomato stew.
Then—
“My name is Karon.”
The man introduced himself.
There was no particular reason to ignore him, so Shurin introduced herself as well.
“I’m Shurin.”
“I know. Aren’t you a fairly famous herbalist around here?”
“You clearly don’t know me at all. I’m not an herbalist. I’m a healer.”
“Isn’t that basically the same thing?”
“No. They’re different.”
“I see. Anyway, you should join our mercenary group.”
“……?”
