Chapter 20.5

Side Story: Memories of the Boss – Perchetta’s Perspective (1)

Huh? What? What do you want to know?

Ralphine? Who’s that? I don’t know who that is. You’ll have to ask someone else…? What? The girl from Baron Kiggs’s house?

Ah, ah, ah, ah… What’s this? You mean Ral? I didn’t know that was the boss’s real name. I only knew her as Ral. It’s like everyone is calling me “Peta” even though my real name is Perchetta. But it’s not inconvenient, so it’s fine. As long as they don’t make a mistake when carving it on my tomb, it’s all good..

Ah, if it’s about Ral, I know about her. I don’t just know, you know. I am the boss’s top henchman, so you can ask me anything. Well, the boss got married and went to the capital city, so it’s been years since I last saw her. What? You came from the capital city? Oh, how is it there? Is the boss still the same? I bet she is. After all, she was an amazing boss.

Since I was a child in this village, I’ve always been a bit special, you know. I was like the leader of the kids, the so-called boss. I could even beat older guys in fights without any problem. So I was acting all cool in this small village.

Then Ral, who was said to be the boss from the nearby big town, came here. She already had more than ten henchmen with her. She came here proudly, saying, “Who’s the boss of this village?” I confidently stepped forward. Back then, I thought I could even beat adults..

When I went out, you know what happened? It was a woman. I was so surprised. She was thin, short, and white. Her silver hair was tied up in a bun on top of her head. She had confident golden eyes. she smiled fearlessly. Well, she had a cute face even back then, but I was just a kid at the time. I thought, ‘The guys in town can’t be that great, that such a soft-looking guy is the boss’.

No, she was strong. It wasn’t about being strong in the conventional sense. I was completely beaten up. Her punches felt like stones, her kicks were like being struck with logs, she effortlessly threw me and made me roll, and she twisted my limbs in strange ways that felt like they were about to break. I cried without any shame. I thought I was going to die. I was literally beaten to a pulp, and I was forced to swear absolute loyalty to the boss. Of course, I knelt down and made that pledge. From that day on, I became Ral’s henchman.

Ral was traveling around the towns and villages in the territory, challenging and defeating the local kids who acted as gang leaders, thus increasing her number of henchmen. I don’t know why she was doing such a thing. Maybe it’s because kids tend to do things that don’t make sense. Anyway, Ral was ridiculously strong. She would fearlessly confront and defeat people much bigger than herself, multiple times her size. There were even instances where she took down an older guy, who was like a grown-up brother, when he got involved because his younger sibling was beaten. She was literally invincible.

After going around all the towns and villages in the territory, defeating and subjugating every kid acting as a leader, Ral had a somewhat bored expression on her face. She would say unreasonable things like, “Aren’t you ashamed that you, a group of boys, couldn’t defeat me, a woman?” It’s all because the boss was too strong. Ral eventually started saying that she was too weak as a human and began venturing into the forest to fight bears. I think she even managed to kill a bear on her own before reaching adulthood. It’s something that would be impossible for an ordinary person, but it’s possible for the boss.

With a group of underlings by her side, Ral would run around the territory, looking for something interesting to do. Most of the time, it involved mischief.

We came across a group of hunters engaged in a large-scale hunt, and that’s when the boss said, “Let’s snatch their prey.” So, here’s what we did: While the hunters were using beaters to drive deer and boars, we went ahead and lured the chased animals in a way that they would pass in front of the boss. Ral skillfully shot them down one by one with her bow. Well, I can use a bow too, but the boss’s archery skills were like magic. She didn’t miss a single shot

And then the prey disappeared. We faced the group of hunters who found it suspicious, and the boss casually said, “We took all the prey. If you want it, pay up.” The hunters were furious, but since they had mobilized a large group of hunters and would be in trouble if there was no prey at all, they ended up paying some money, if I recall correctly. I remember we had a lavish time afterwards. Even if we caught so many deer and boars, we couldn’t take them all with us and would have been burdened, so as long as we got money to have fun, it was good enough.

We also thoroughly disrupted the fishing activities of some fisherman who angered Ral. We brought dozens of cats and released them towards the dried fish that the fisherman were making. The cats were overjoyed. We hindered the fisherman as they tried to drive away the cats in anger, and in the end, all the dried fish became ruined. We swam in the net the fisherman had set up, causing it to flow in the wrong direction, completely preventing them from catching any fish. Eventually, the fisherman ended up crying and apologizing to Ral. After forgiving him, the boss had us help the fisherman restart his fishing and catch fish. Ral, despite her appearance, knew that the fisherman was barely making a living, and if left alone, he would starve to death.

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