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Chapter – 04
How a Mercenary Protects Their Charge (4)
Regina opened her eyes about four days later.
The first thing she saw was a familiar ceiling. The next were the welcome faces gathered around her bed.
“Regina!”
“Ugh… can’t breathe.”
Before the haze could even leave her mind, Regina repeatedly smacked Maut’s thick arms as he crushed her in a hug. As expected of Persona’s second-in-command, his strength was monstrous.
“U-Uncle… I can’t breathe…”
“Do you know how worried we were, kid?”
“M-Miss!”
The mercenaries all started chattering and crying at once, making Regina’s ears ache.
She had been injured countless times while working as a mercenary, and every time it turned into this sort of commotion. No matter how much she scolded or comforted them, it never changed.
And strangely enough, whenever she left the Persona Guild, this was the sight she ended up missing most.
“More importantly, the mission? Gail?”
“Oh, even now that’s what you’re worried about? The mission ended successfully, and Gail went to buy your favorite pudding.”
At Maut’s scolding, Regina finally relaxed.
The process had been rough, but thankfully the mission had succeeded.
‘I was worried we’d fail.’
Failure on a contract brought enormous penalties. Regina always gave everything she had to protect Persona, the guild that was like family to her.
“Then did we receive the remaining payment? We still have to pay the penalty fee to the Kor Merchant Company.”
“They said someone related to the matter would come deliver it personally. Though for some reason, they’re dragging their feet.”
“…Tell them to come immediately.”
Trying to cheat them out of money, were they?
Regina frowned deeply.
Two things she hated most in the world were people who looked down on mercenaries—and people who failed to pay what they owed.
If Maut hadn’t promised to contact them right away, she might have stormed out herself.
“Tch. We never should’ve taken a royal escort mission in the first place. It felt suspicious from the beginning! Mercenaries escorting royalty?”
“We should track down those assassins first. How dare they attack while Persona was guarding the target.”
“Who the hell would attack royalty anyway?”
“Noble business, probably. Nobles act all dignified, but they’ve got enemies everywhere. Even a crazy prince, I guess. Right, Regina?”
Regina merely smiled faintly.
For a brief moment, she remembered Valentin drinking water from her hand.
‘Still… he wasn’t really that crazy. Well, not that I’ll ever see him again.’
“More importantly, does anyone know where Father is? He still hasn’t come back after running off, has he?”
At Regina’s question, everyone simultaneously looked away.
The suspicious reaction immediately made her frown deepen again.
“Talk. Now.”
“…The boss did stop by the guild for a bit. But while we were out on missions, I think he took money from the vault again. Even the emergency funds.”
Ah.
Regina remembered yet another thing she absolutely hated.
Gellan being in love.
“What!? Again?! Why are you only telling me now?!”
Fueled by explosive rage, Regina shoved Maut off her and leapt out of bed despite having been bedridden moments ago.
She should have hidden the vault key inside her own body instead of the stable.
Unable to overlook her immature father anymore, Regina swore she would settle things with Gellan tonight somehow.
She’d make sure he could never flirt—or even function as a man—again.
“Regina, you’re a patient! A patient! Where do you think you’re going?”
“The boss already disappeared. You probably won’t find him. For the record, we all tried to stop him.”
“Haa…”
Regina’s fury escaped as a long sigh.
Since Gellan had emptied the vault, there was probably no money left. The gold bars were likely gone too.
And because he was probably terrified of getting scolded, there was a high chance he wouldn’t show his face for months.
At this rate, the guild might actually collapse.
‘Why does he become an idiot every time he falls in love?’
The King of Mercenaries, Gellan, was a shameless flirt—and pathetically enough, completely helpless whenever romance was involved.
If a woman asked for it, he was the kind of man who would carve open his own chest with a sword and offer up his heart.
“Regina, your sighs can be heard all the way down in the lobby.”
Without knocking, Gail entered the room and offered her pudding.
Since it was an expensive dessert usually enjoyed by nobles, Regina only ate it on special occasions.
The Persona guild members, who had all been frightened by her terrifying yelling moments earlier, immediately pushed the pudding toward her eagerly.
“Come on, eat that and calm down a bit.”
“Later.”
Oh no.
She was really angry.
Regina only refused pudding when her mood had fallen beneath rock bottom and dug straight underground.
And understandably so—the penalty fee owed to the Kor Merchant Company amounted to three times the mission payment.
On top of that, the guild’s finances were genuinely unstable thanks to reckless expansion.
But Gellan hated dealing with numbers and remained indifferent despite being guild master.
As a result, Regina was always the one drowning in stress.
‘At this rate we’ll go bankrupt. But I can’t force the guild members—who were finally happy things had stabilized—to only take life-threatening missions either.’
The Persona Guild had only existed for ten years.
Compared to other guilds, its history was incredibly short, and it still hadn’t grown roots sturdy enough to withstand violent storms.
“And even if we increase the number of contracts…”
Regina trailed off.
Soon, anger slowly crept across her face again.
Many Persona mercenaries had been left bedridden because of the black-masked attackers who ambushed the Kor Merchant Company’s cargo convoy.
It would take at least a month before they could return.
“Hey, Princess Regina. What are you worrying so much for? You’ve got us.”
“Stop calling me princess already.”
“Haha! If not you, then who else deserves the title? There’s not a soul in the mercenary world who doesn’t know your name! And there’s no woman stronger than you either!”
Everyone threw their heads back and laughed loudly in exaggerated fashion.
Strangely enough, it really did make her feel better.
“Regina’s awake, so let’s celebrate!”
Led by Maut, everyone rushed toward the liquor storage.
Gail grabbed the pudding and draped an arm around Regina’s shoulders.
“What about you?”
“I’m not drinking. I just woke up, and there might be night visitors.”
Taking the pudding from him, Regina gazed out the window.
The sun had already set.
Soon night would arrive, and it would be time for Persona’s other face to emerge.
‘At least a night client would be nice.’
A mask has an inside and an outside.
Each side has a different shape and purpose.
That was the Persona Guild.
Located in District C, the most remote area of Mentenko—the dazzling and extravagant capital of the Manemo Empire—the Persona Guild attracted completely different customers during the day and at night.
At night, they became mercenaries for those kinds of clients.
Wearing masks of their own, they slipped into the darkness to handle dangerous and secretive requests.
At those times, they were venomous serpents.
And during those shadowy nights, Regina became the deadliest serpent among them.
“Night clients have been rare lately.”
“Yeah, that’s the problem. It’d be nice if a big contract came in.”
“Still, you really worked hard this time. Thanks to you, the prince survived.”
Regina let out a small laugh at Gail’s attempt to comfort her and nodded.
Right before losing consciousness from the poison, she had despaired.
She had been certain the mission failed.
Three failed contracts in a row—she thought she had personally dragged Persona’s name through unprecedented disgrace.
‘But if he’s safe, then reinforcements must’ve arrived immediately afterward.’
“Did you take care of the remaining assassins?”
“Hm? By the time I got there, that imperial knight—Thomas or Tomato or whatever—had already cleaned things up. Didn’t look that strong, though.”
Even Regina found it a little strange that the imperial knight had supposedly killed all the assassins in such a short amount of time before reinforcements arrived.
Still, the mission was over.
She decided not to think too deeply about it.
After all, she would never see that noble duke again anyway.
Rotating the shoulder that had once been dislocated, Regina found it completely healed despite having been unconscious.
“So what was that crazy prince like?”
“Well… more normal than I expected. Handsome too.”
Come to think of it, why exactly had they called him crazy?
The recent rumors claimed that a massive fire had broken out in the prince’s palace and left him with permanent mental trauma.
But the man Regina encountered seemed relatively normal.
Especially compared to the blood-crazed mercenaries surrounding her every day.
“Handsome?”
“Yeah. I’ve honestly never seen someone with looks like that before.”
“More handsome than me?”
Gail’s face suddenly moved close enough for his breath to tickle her nose.
Used to this sort of thing, Regina merely blinked.
Then she jabbed two fingers sharply between his ribs as he tightened the arm around her neck mischievously.
“Urk.”
“I told you not to joke around like that.”
“I’m jealous.”
Pouting, Gail let her playfully ruffle his bright red hair.
Then, hearing a booming voice from outside the room, Regina slipped out of his grasp.
“Hey, Regina! Gail! Hurry up and get over here!”
Under the moonlight high in the night sky, sharp crashing noises and screams filled the room.
Watching the violent, frenzied Valentin, Head Maid Finet Bayman could only panic helplessly.
In nearly forty years of service, she had never attended a master like this before.
Crash!
“AAAAAH!”
“Your Grace! Please calm yourself!”
She had heard he was a mad prince prone to violent episodes, but she never imagined it would be this severe.
He smashed every object in the room and ran wildly around as though his body were engulfed in flames.
“The fire demon—the flames are trying to cling to me! Somebody put them out!”
Terrified that the duke might step on shattered fragments, Thomas shouted at Finet:
“Don’t look at him! He’s sensitive to people staring!”
“I-I’ll help. Sir Pin.”
Proud of her years of experience, Finet boldly stepped forward and grabbed Valentin firmly by the shoulders.
But touching Valentin during one of his episodes was practically forbidden.
Afflicted with madness, Valentin violently rejected anyone’s touch.
After all, his upper body was surely covered in horrific burn scars.
“Don’t touch me!”
“Ah! My apologies!”
Having her hand struck away, Finet felt irritation rise for a moment.
But she quickly bowed her head instead, reminding herself that insane or not, he was still her master.
