After the girls left, the mercenary captain stared for a while at the table.
Then, he rang a little bell to summon the butler.
“You called, sir?”
“Tell me. What have you been doing?”
“P-Pardon me, sir?” The butler realized belatedly—the captain was angry.
“You sent a brand-new maid to deal with a noble’s envoy, then when everything went to hell over Morning Star’s necklace, you were nowhere to be found. Explain yourself.”
“I-I’m terribly sorry, sir. I was tied up with the accounting...”
“Were you now? Sounds like I’ll have to hire someone new.”
A look of relief spread over the butler’s face—but only for a moment.
“You’re dismissed.”
“Wh-What?!”
“I’ve got no use for a butler who doesn’t understand the importance of his duties. Now get out of my sight.”
“B-But captain, sir, I’ve served your mercenary company for year—”
“Get out, I said! Don’t make me say it again!”
Cowed by the captain’s wrath, the butler spun around and scurried from the room.
“Now to have a word with my idiot son. Time to tell him I’m disbanding the Dark Frost Mercenaries... Ah, but wait. First, there’s the matter of that maid.”
He reached for the bell again to call the housekeeper, then stopped as he remembered she wasn’t here.
“I’ll see to it as soon as she gets back,” he told himself. “Nina didn’t want her handed over to the guards. I’ll respect that. Still, as master of this house, I’ll have to fire her and report her to the employment agency at the very least.”
Even in a city as big as Thundergard, once word got back to the agency that she’d been dismissed—and for involvement in a theft, no less—a maid would never find another post. It was only proper that he do that much, and indeed, he wanted to do more. But Nina’s declaration of forgiveness had made him unsure of how to proceed.
He sighed. “I can’t believe I had to let such an exceptional maid go...”
He didn’t have any regrets about breaking up the mercenary company, but he did regret letting Nina go. He couldn’t help but wonder what might have been if he’d revealed his true identity to Nina earlier, or if he’d spent more time at the estate and noticed her suspicious behavior...
But perhaps it wouldn’t have made a difference. Nina’s sole goal had always been to investigate lupalunes.
“H-Hello, dad...”
His son entered the room along with Pearly Cloud and Morning Star, breaking through his musings. The man was over sixty, and yet he was sweating nervously and seemed to cringe as he sat down across from his father.
“Shut it, muttonhead.”
“B-But... Come on...”
“I’ll give you a talking-to later,” the captain snapped, then turned to glare at the other two. “Pearly Cloud. Morning Star.”
The two imposter lupalunes averted their eyes awkwardly.
“You haven’t forgotten what you owe the Dark Frost Mercenaries, have you? Had we not plucked you two out of that slum, like as not you’d have died there. You remember what you owe us, I trust?”
Pearly Cloud mumbled his assent. Morning Star, however, looked annoyed.
“Of course,” she shot back. “Why else would we be dyeing our hair and covering ourselves in fur for this lupalune charade? We avoided going outside to avoid blowing our cover.” She took a breath, then continued. “We took our swords and risked our lives on the battlefield, and you call us ungrateful? Go ahead! We’ll go out and make sure everyone knows the lupalunes were a lie. That’ll be the end of the glorious Dark Frost Mercenaries.”
“Whoa, Morning Star. You’re getting carried a—”
“Well, that’s convenient.” The old captain cut off Pearly Cloud’s attempts to restrain Morning Star. “I’d be much obliged if you would.”
“Wh-What are you talking about?” Morning Star was thrown but quickly recovered. “Oh, I see how it is, Captain. You think I’m all bark and no bite. Well, think again. Like you said, I started life in a slum. I’ve got nothing to—”
The captain sighed, and Morning Star instantly lost her voice. Despite putting her life on the line in battle countless times, that one sigh was enough to cow her. For in that sigh, she could hear that the captain was well and truly disappointed in her.
“I’ve decided to disband the Dark Frost Mercenaries,” he said.
Complete and utter shock met his words.
His son, the acting captain, stared at him in disbelief. It couldn’t be true. This had to be another test for him.
Pearly Cloud closed his eyes as though deep down, he’d known this was coming.
“Th-That’s crazy,” Morning Star stammered. “You shouldn’t joke about things like that, Captain.”
“Who’s joking? I’m properly furious, you know. Even after all that, I suppose you’ve still got no plans to apologize to that poor maid for the way you terrorized her?”
“You can’t be serious. It’s just one maid! After all we’ve done to keep everyone safe, if anything, she should thank us!”
“And that there is why I’m disbanding this company.”
“That doesn’t make any sense!”
“I don’t need your understanding. Not anymore.”
Morning Star’s eyes widened. “Pearly Cloud!” she shouted.
He said nothing.
“Are you going to sit here and take this?”
“It’s over, Morning Star,” he said at last.
“I won’t let this happen...” Morning Star said wildly, glaring daggers at the captain. “So long as we’re here, the Dark Frost Mercenaries are invincible!”
“Back off, B—”
But Pearly Cloud’s attempt to talk her down came too late.
As far as she was concerned, the old man was out of his mind. If he would just give up the captaincy, the Dark Frost Mercenaries could carry on.
He was just a senile old man.
He had one foot in the grave already.
Morning Star sprang over the sofa, knife in hand, and struck with terrifying speed at the old man’s throat. One sure slash, and his life would be over. A killing blow.
“Huh?”
The next thing Morning Star knew, she was spinning through the air like a top. Then she slammed into the wall.
“B— Morning Star!” Pearly Cloud shouted. He looked like he was about to move, but the captain barked, “Leave her be!” He froze where he stood.
The captain turned to his son. “You didn’t even educate them properly, you stupid lunk.”
“I-I’m sorry, dad... But Morning Star must know they called you the Axe-Wielding Harlequin here in the capital...”
“Saw me shrunken with age and thought I’d lost my touch, eh?”
“I, I guess...”
Old though he was, the captain was the one who’d built the Dark Frost Mercenaries into what they were today. No matter how many years passed, a mighty warrior was still a mighty warrior. Morning Star’s desperation must have been such that she’d forgotten.
There was a groan from the wall as she slowly pushed herself up.
“If you’d taken the news with any grace at all, I might have reconsidered,” the captain sighed. “As it is, I’ve got nothing more to say to you. The Dark Frost Mercenaries are over, and that’s final.”
The other three hung their heads as they traipsed from the room, Morning Star leaning on Pearly Cloud’s arm.
The captain let out another sigh, this time of utter exhaustion. Morning Star had been a good girl, once. She’d never had a harsh word for anyone in the house. If anything, Pearly Cloud had been the difficult one.
He knew how it went. Money, jewels, privilege—those things changed people, and they’d fight to keep hold of them. Most of the opponents he’d battled in the past had been like that. Some would stop at nothing, even sinking to open criminality.
“Maybe this is just what Morning Star needs,” he said to himself.
Although she let her emotions take over when faced with adversity, she was usually a kind person. And Pearly Cloud, despite his abrasiveness, had his heart in the right place when it really counted. They’d grown up practically as siblings. They’d be all right so long as they were there for each other.
He grimaced. “Dear me, I’ve got a lot to do...”
Disbanding a mercenary company was easier said than done. There were all sorts of people who’d have to be notified and a mountain of paperwork to file. The butler would’ve been the perfect man for the job, except that he’d just fired him. In other words, he’d have to do it all himself.
“Drat ’n’ tarnation...” he muttered. The thought of the gargantuan task ahead of him made him slip back into his old mercenary way of speaking. “But that’s the way of things, ain’t it? Gotta clean up my own damn mess...”
Realizing he was thirsty, he reached for the tea left out on the table. It had long since grown cold, but the aroma remained. He took a sip and sighed in satisfaction; the tea smoothed out his rough edges, turning him back into the old man he was.
“She did splendid work and made no mistakes. I really am sorry we had to part on such unfortunate terms. But no...” he murmured, leaning back on the sofa and beginning to doze. “I ought to be glad that I got to meet...such an excellent maid. I’d seen a maid like her only once before... Dear me... How am I going to tell the empress...that I’m disbanding...”
And with that, he fell asleep, a peaceful look on his face as though he was looking back on memories of his youth.