I Became the First Prince

136

Mercenary of the Twin Swords (3)

The king of Dotrin was an angry man.

He didn’t hesitate to speak, and once he spoke, there was nothing that he hid.

Through him, I learned of the circumstances that I had been unaware of up till then.

Among them was the tale of Doris.

As things stood, the Knights of the Sky should only appear at the decisive moment, yet Doris had taken the secret weapon and employed it by his own will. It was a matter of the wrong thing, at wrong time.

I opined that the concerns were not so grave, as we had made sure not to be witnessed when we flew, but the king clearly expressed his discomfort, saying that it had been foolish to take the wyverns all across the empire. He added that it would not be strange if the emperor of Burgundy, whose family had not forgotten the old ways, has already managed to link the wyverns with the Leonberg delegation.

“Of course, there is a lot of room left for you to obfuscate facts because you created a separate track overland.”

The king of Dotrin thought that me splitting the delegation and making the soldiers escape through the countryside had been a smokescreen operation on my part. In actual fact, I had just figured that the imperial knights would not pay much attention to the soldiers, so I commanded them to march to safety. I had unintentionally confused the empire’s information network by ordering that.

The king said that he had been unsure whether to praise me for my feats or punish me for the mistakes made by my delegation.

“Until I saw you directly with my own eyes,” and here the king’s expression softened, “I didn’t believe it.”

His depthless eyes studied me.

“Even if you played a part in exposing the Knights of the Sky so early, my kingdom must still obtain allies.”

I laid back in my chair and watched the king.

“So, am I enough?” I asked him now that he had met me.

“I think you’re enough,” he said with a nod.

“I am upset that I played a part in all of this, to some extent.”

“Don’t be embarrassed. The secret of my Sky Knights would’ve been revealed at some time or another. Still, I am not saying that you alone are worth more than all the Knights of the Sky.”

I merely shrugged as I heard such prideful words.

They are, after all, the descendants of the Wyvern Knights who made the mighty elves cower in the lush forests while they roamed the blue sky.

“Would Doris and Jin’s disciplinary measures be withdrawn?”

The King of Dotrin shook his head. He said he intended to change the habits of the prince who always flashed about like an impulsive thunderbolt. The grounds for punishment as laid out by the king sounded quite plausible.

“No, Doris should have contemplated the matter and then decided not to intervene. To say that he aided a trusted friend was always the excuse that sprang into his mind after he did something rash. I know him best, for he is my son.”

Doris was not my child, but I sympathized with the king’s position. From what I’ve seen of Doris, I doubted whether he had considered both sides of the matter. It was highly likely that the only resistance to his plans came from Jin.

“The same counts for Jin Katrin. He is quite an extraordinary man, yet his good sense becomes warped when he is with Doris.”

The king continued to complain about the two for a long time. Even if he was complaining, I felt how much he loved and trusted them. I chuckled when I saw this softer side of him bared and then changed the subject.

“How goes the war?”

“In some places, we dominate, and in others, we are being pushed back. There is no certainty yet – And no breaches.”

“Where are you being pushed?”

The king widened his eyes when he tried to formulate a casual response to my query. I smiled and asked him again, “Where are your forces retreating? Where am I needed?”

It was time for me to mount a wyvern and repay my debts.

* * *

Instead of answering on the spot, the king said I should attend the war council on the following morning and bring my knights with me. I said I would, but I first had to properly conceal my identity. As things stood, no one would notice a few extra mercenaries.

My intention had been to disguise us as mercenaries from the get-go. That is why I had only brought knights with me who collected mana in the heart. Mana hearts in this era are viewed as poor tools for mercenaries and the untrained.

“You must take great care.”

The King of Dotrin was very concerned. Since he could not extend his full protection to me as a Leonberger, he said there would be many uncomfortable situations I will face moonlighting as a mercenary.

At that, I laughed.

I have never enjoyed much respect as a member of a royal family, and I wasn’t interested in anything like that in the first place. I had never enjoyed it.

I left the dining room, telling the king not to worry.

I moved through the corridors along the path I had taken with the messenger, seeing no one from beginning to end. When I came to my room, I saw that my party had gathered outside it, waiting for me.

“Let’s go in.”

I led them into the room and told them of the conversation I had with the king.

“From tomorrow on, you will all be mercenaries.”

The knights nodded at my words, and none of them seemed reluctant.

It was natural, as I had chosen them in the first place.

Gwain had never truly lived like a knight, and he had even reached rock bottom, living a life of ruin. He would never be reluctant to disguise himself as either a soldier or a mercenary.

The same counted for Gunn, Adelia, and Gwain’s comrades.

I had figured that Bernardo would be a problem, but fortunately, he had a strange fantasy.

“To be a noble who disguises himself as a mercenary. It’s romantic.”

I ignored Eli, who talked with a blushing, eager face, and moved on to the topic of my name. If we were to be mercenaries, we had to talk like them.

“You can call me Ian.”

“Ian!” Bernardo called me as if he had been awaiting the moment.

He had definitely planned this, I decided. He was in a strange mood.

“Ian. Ian! Ian!”

‘Pwak!’ I couldn’t take it anymore, so I struck him across the back of his head.

“Why!? You said we must call you Ian!” he exclaimed, making his excuses.

“Maybe ‘nim’ should be added,” I suggested then.

“Ian-nim! Ieeeaan-Niiim!” Bernardo called me, enjoying himself.

“If you want to live, you better stop that.”

I was getting pissed off for some reason.

Bernardo, seeing my face, stepped back.

Obviously, when I had first met him, he had a rather aristocratic bearing and had been able to evince a moderate level of dignity. But as I saw him now, all such noble terms had become obsolete when talking about Bernardo Eli. It seems that his manners have been flushed away after he had spent so much time with the rough rangers.

As I clucked my tongue, Gwain said, “Ian-nim.”

It sounded dry and awkward, but at least not gritty. It didn’t even sound selfish or mocking, as Bernardo had made it sound. In Gwain’s voice, it just sounded as if it was the way you called someone who you worked with. Gwain’s two comrades also called me this in a similar tone, then shut up. It seemed that they had all practiced it in their own way.

I looked at Gunn. She could not speak, so she formed my name with her mouth.

She then beckoned, (Name – First Time)

I asked what she meant by time, but she gave no answer.

I didn’t think more about it as I turned to Adelia.

She shook her head. Unlike the others, she had been my maid from the start and was even bound to me by the trait of [Subordination], so she could not manage to put my name into her mouth, not even half of it.

Adelia tried it several times, but she couldn’t say my name in the end.

“I think you can just call him the manager, or chief,” said Bernardo.

Adelia’s eyes widened.

“If we want to act as mercenaries in the first place, someone has to play the role of leader. Not one of us can do that, so isn’t it only right for Ian-nim to take the lead?”

He was right. I thought just looking like mercenaries would be enough, but we had to truly act like them as well.

“I didn’t even think so far,” I said. Bernardo, who had been talking all over the place, looked at my face and grew quiet.

“Yes, Chief,” I heard Adelia softly whispering while I was gazing at Eli. Then, her face turned red, and she didn’t know what to do. It seemed that it would take her some time to get used to it.

“But when it comes to being a mercenary company, we should also have the name of a mercenary company,” Bernardo, who was extraordinarily sharp today, spoke again, then added, “I will decide now.”

Then, as if he had been thinking of this beforehand, he gave his suggestion.

“How about the Bright Sword Mercenaries?”

It was a name that would not even be used by the ancient knights who used Muhunshi poetry four-hundred years ago, and they liked their poetic expressions. I ignored Bernardo neatly and asked the others for their opinions.

Gwain, his comrades, and Adelia looked at me blankly, and theirs were truly faces without thought.

When I met his gaze, Gwain figured that he had to say something, so he quickly blurted out a suggestion.

“What about the Association of Mercenaries?” Gwain said, and then at once shut his mouth, his face troubled. He knew that he had spoken up for nothing.

I sympathized with him; it would have been better had he stayed silent.

I then looked at Gunn, but she didn’t seem interested at all.

“I like the Bright Swords,” Bernardo offered his name again, adding, “And if you don’t like the Bright Sword Mercenaries, the Indomitable Mercenaries sound quite intrepid. How about it?”

I was completely ignoring Bernardo at this point, no matter what he said.

Then there was a name that came to my mind.

“Veil.”

Bernardo looked at me and frowned as he heard this.

“From now on, we are the Veil Mercenary Company.”

“All of a sudden? What is this vei-” and Bernardo shut his mouth when he saw my face and realized his mistake. It wasn’t just him: Gwain, Trindall, Kampra, and Adelia all had the same faces.

And I probably looked like that as well.

Veil, the title of my departed uncle, Bale Balahard: The word held a very special meaning for the knights of Leonberg.

* * *

The next day, we met with the king privately before attending the war council.

It was in order for us to sort out the names in advance and get used to them.

“The Veil Mercenaries. That’s a good name.”

The King of Dotrin looked at my party, doing a brisk review of them.

At first glance, it seemed as if the king was embarrassed.

When he saw Bernardo Eli, he nodded as if he was quite good. He tilted his head as if sensing some unknown incongruity when he passed by Gwain, Trindall, and Kampra. They met him with cold gazes. And when he saw Adelia, the king spat out, “She’s amazing! Amazing.”

The king’s eyes shone like never before, obviously understanding her potential.

I stepped forward and interspersed myself between the king and Adelia.

“This is my knight,” I said firmly, “Don’t covet her.”

The king sighed. Adelia’s potential seemed to have made him quite greedy.

However, he pretended to no longer covet her talent as he spoke on casually.

“When I tell you to come in, enter. I will introduce you formally,” he said and then left us as he went off somewhere.

We waited for a while, and then the messenger I had walked with before came and said the king has called for us.

‘Cheelkup!’ the knights slid down the visors of their iron helms, and now only the tips of their noses and their mouths were visible.

The visored knights drew their hoods over their helms and then glanced at me.

I followed their example, becoming visored and hooded.

Then we followed the messenger until he halted before a large door. When I nodded, he opened it quietly.

Before us, there was a conference room with a convex ceiling which was frescoed to appear like the blue sky, a huge marble table, and dozens of men around it who all looked at us.

From their faces, I figured that they thought only trivial mercenaries had appeared.

We weren’t the kind of folk who deserved much attention from the commanders who led the kingdom’s forces. Yet, there was a strangeness to their expression, and they were weirdly focusing on us, with not a single one of them speaking up.

In that strange silence, I looked at the king, and the king of Dotrin was laughing. It’s as if he was having fun by gazing upon the sight before him.

Next to him stood Doris, who I had not seen since coming here, and there was Jin.

Jin looked at me and touched his lips, which meant: “Introduce yourself.”

It was an unfamiliar experience. Other people have always announced my name on behalf of me, so this was the first time I had to come out first and reveal my name like this.

But it wasn’t a bad thing; I just didn’t want to do the stereotypical introduction.

So, I introduced us in my own way: Like a person walking the path of the sword, like a mercenary. I drew my sword and summoned an aura into it, to prove myself.

“Wow.”

I heard someone sigh behind me. Dotrin’s commanders all had wide eyes as they stood around the table. The king’s face seemed as if it would burst into laughter at any moment, so funny was it for him.

Regardless of their reactions, I exclaimed vigorously, “Here is the Veil Mercenary Company!”

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