Side Story: The Mercenary’s Tale
IN this world called Wisty Air, multiple countries exist, with their borders separated by uninviting walls. If one wishes to enter a different country, they have to traverse roads where monsters prowl and then hope to be let in through the gates.
I, Garfel, worked as a mercenary with my two comrades, Otto and Rigal. The three of us joined the army of an alliance of countries led by De Marl, meant to oppose the country Edesa Kura.
At some point…three years ago, all the monsters around the world started growing in size and strength. At first, the merchants who’d hired us as guards remained stout-hearted, and despite the monsters being stronger, we were still capable of dealing with them. But there was another change in this world that we soon came to notice.
The black dot.
A small black dot had appeared in the sky and began growing bigger by the day. No one knew what it meant, and time went by without any explanation for it. A year later, it became so large it was easy to spot it in the sky. After two years, it occupied a full section of the sky. And three years after it had appeared, it blotted out the sky entirely.
It was around that time that rumors of the Holy Woman started cropping up all over the place. People said she lived in a place called Deshmel, at the world’s navel, where she used a monster-attracting barrier to draw in and then purify monsters from all around the world.
Yes, she purified monsters. She didn’t defeat them, but purified—in other words, erased them. Monsters were seen as undefeatable and unkillable, but she found a way to dispose of them. I couldn’t believe it.
“Hey, Garfel, we just got a new request for a job!” Otto called out to me.
“Oh?” I responded.
“Another merchant’s asking for bodyguards, but they’re looking to go to Deshmel. The pay’s good, but do we take it…?” Rigal explained as he and Otto came up to me.
“Wait, what? That’s the spot where all the monsters are!” I said. “You said the pay is good; how good are we talking here?”
Depending on the pay, we could equip ourselves differently. Still, going to Deshmel with just three people felt like a tall order. With that thought in mind, I checked the request form…only for my eyeballs to almost pop out of their sockets. This merchant was offering three times the market value!
“The client said they’d like us to hire any other mercs we know who’d take the job alongside us,” Rigal explained.
“So that’s why they’re offering to pay so much,” I said. “Just looking at those numbers almost gave me a heart attack.”
“Well, it’s a dangerous destination,” Rigal said. “Trust me, the pay had me shocked too, but apparently, since this caravan supplies gear to a few countries, they pitched in to add a bonus. Apparently this Deshmel place is where the Holy Woman lives.”
“Wow…” I hummed.
The Holy Woman—apparently, folks over at the demi-human continent worshipped her. People over here on the human continent worshipped their various guardian gods instead, but recently, even people in human countries were starting to convert to believing in her.
Apparently, humans’ faith in anything except Air and the Holy Woman created Kathra, which evolved into Camilla. And the monsters around the world consumed this Kathra, which was what made them grow in size. And then there was that gigantic black mass in the sky.
The way things were going, Wisty Air itself would end up being swallowed whole by that black mass. I didn’t know if that story was true, but Mythical Beasts came all the way from the Mythical continent to warn humans about it.
And that was an alarming development, since the Mythicals had never interfered with humans before. Anyone who’s ever traveled to the Mythical continent could attest to how unusual that was.
I’ve actually been to the Mythical continent three times myself. The people of that continent were fundamentally indifferent toward humans. To them, we were creatures who would pass away before their hair grew out. For all the Mythical Beasts were concerned, they wouldn’t budge unless the world was in mortal danger.
So the fact they decided to act felt like all the proof I needed to believe the rumors that the black mass in the sky was about to swallow up Wisty Air.
And apparently, the Mythical continent had also acknowledged the Holy Woman who’d set up base in Deshmel. And bringing supplies to that Holy Woman was the job we were currently being offered.
“Let’s take it,” I said, handing the job request Rigal had handed me over to Otto. “It’ll be an interesting job, that’s for sure!”
“Agreed,” Otto said. “If both the demi-human and Mythical continents acknowledge this Holy Woman, we’ve got no choice but to admit she’s the real deal.”
“You think all the stories about her are real?” Rigal asked.
Apparently, he wasn’t ready to believe yet. Otto simply said that finding that out is part of what’ll make this request interesting. As for me, I felt that if this Holy Woman really could purify the monsters, she was worth believing in.
And so, we took the job. We called in a few other mercs we knew, forming a group of ten. We got our gear in order and prepared more food and water than usual for the trip. And so, our escort mission began.
Our client, Giyaga, was a fairly famous traveling merchant. With the monsters becoming more active, smaller caravans that couldn’t afford guards had to put their business on hold. But Giyaga had a caravan of three large carriages, and he received support from the countries he dealt with, allowing him to continue his business.
He was apparently a very brave merchant, too, who supported the livelihoods of the farms and inns that dotted the land between the different countries.