Chapter 2: 90th Year’s Festival

The gentle sea breeze was blowing from the east, carrying the chimes from the great bell tower.

When I just came to this city, the bell tower could be seen from anywhere in the city. But now, its figure was concealed from the people's views by the tall buildings that were erected one after another.

In the next few years, its chimes will be buried in the miscellaneous sounds of the city, and I am sure even that will disappear from the people’s memories.

Ixlaha.

Located in the Papal States of Unaria, which exists in the easternmost part of the Grand York Continent, this city is built on the flatland facing the Pearl sea.

Since ancient times, this city has been carrying a lot of significance as a religious gateway to foreign lands. Even now, there are still more than thirty church buildings built of bricks remaining, and they are as magnificent as ‘towers’. However, as commerce trading has flourished in recent years, various foreign cultures have also begun to integrate into the city.

Therefore, this is a place where ancient and modern times coexist at the same time, indwelling with the contradictions of different eras———that is Ixlaha, the city where I live.

If you go a little off-road from the commercial district crowded with multi-floor buildings on the coastline, you will reach the region lined up with the short buildings from older times. This region is filled with shops that sell basic necessities for livelihood and pubs for relaxation and refreshment.

When the setting sun shone through between the mountains, I was listlessly leaning on the counter of a coffee shop located in that region. The stream was already gone from the coffee served in front of me.

“How long are you going to stick with a cup of coffee, Sword?”

I raised my head at the voice that came from the other side of the counter. In front of me, a gentle-looking man wearing a denim apron was looking down at me.

He wears frameless glasses on his delicate face, and he has blonde hair. His eye slits are long, and his irises are emerald green. His facial features are so refined that there is no room for complaints. He should be 23 years old, the same as me, but the difference between us in terms of appearance is like heaven and earth.

“I’m now pondering about the absurdity and unfairness of life.”

“Only now? That kind of thing should have been graduated in your teens.”

While rebutting my half-hearted reply, he retrieved the already cold coffee from my front. Then, he fetched another cup from the cupboard, poured new coffee into it, and placed it in front of me.

“This cup is on me. Just be grateful and drink it”

“Is this your consolation?”

In my line of sight, Hugh just shrugged his shoulders.

Hugh Green.

He is a former guildmate of mine and the owner of this coffee shop ‘Green Knight’.

Having retired as a mercenary, he left the guild a year ago and opened this coffee shop. He is also one of the few successful ex-mercenaries, so to speak.

I said with a grimacing face.

“I finally understood what emotions I was harboring toward you all the time. It is ‘envy’, no doubt.”

“I was just lucky to be successful with my hobby.”

“Unintentionally bragging will get you even more resentment from people, Hugh”

A library cafe born from the hobbies of reading books and drinking coffee. It seems to be the concept of this shop. The surrounding walls are fenced by the bookshelves, and customers can drink their favorite tea and read books of their liking. This combination is well-received, and the business is running in good shape. Around 5:00 PM in the evening, customers can be seen here and there in the shop.

His own shop on top of his good looks, what’s more, it is quite successful. Indeed, when I look at this guy, I only get the feeling of inferiority. If God actually exists, that bastard must be an unreasonable guy.

“You seem to be in a bad mood again today, Sword.”

“If there is a guy that can be in a good mood on the day he loses his job, he must be insanely crazy.”

“If so, doesn’t it seem more like you?”

When I glared at him, Hugh laughed as if it was amusing.

“Just kidding”

“Another word for the derogatory joke is called contempt. Did you know?”

“If a guy gets angry from such a joke, that’s also because it hits the mark. Did you know?”

I waved my left hand in annoyance in the gaze of Hugh’s refreshing eyes. It is useless to keep arguing with this guy.

“Even so, this is such a gloomy conversation, even though it is only 10 days until the Independence Day Festival.”

“Give me a break”, I shook my head depressingly. “I really want to see if any mercenaries can be in a festive mood.”

On the way to this shop, I sensed the unusual burst of activity in the city. Every time I passed through the city blocks decorated with precious brocades and various colorful textiles, I became more and more depressed in inverse proportion.

“God is harassing me on a global scale, no doubt.”

“God isn’t free enough to meddle with someone like you.”

“Either way, I am sure he is a nasty bastard.”

“Well, this is a special festival that comes only once a year. Although I understand your feelings, don’t spread your especially foul mood in my shop, Sword”

“......What an unreasonable demand.”

When I turned my gloomy gaze to the side of the counter, a big headline of this morning's newspaper, which was placed conspicuously, appeared in my sights. Seeing the title ‘The imminent Independence Day Festival and the bustling city’, my already down mood plummeted even further.

The Independence Day Festival is one of the major events of this country, and it is celebrated annually.

The day when ‘Unaria Empire’ was reborn as ‘Papal States of Unaria’ 90 years ago......

It was also the day when Emperor Leone, the tyrant of that era, was beheaded in this city, Ixlaha, by the revolutionary army after he ran away from the imperial capital.

Maybe, because of that, the Independence Day Festival in this city is much more spectacular. Ixlaha is a city where one history has ended; at the same time, it is also a city where a new history has started. That seems to be a sort of pride for this city’s inhabitants.

In my opinion, such moldy pride is as worthless as shit. Above all, what I can’t stomach is that they have the nerve to continue celebrating the event which happened 90 years ago as if they had participated in it. I want to loudly claim that none of you was born yet.

Hugh picked up that newspaper and opened it, unfolding the front page. In that article, there were pictures of the central terminal crowded by many tourists and aristocrats descending from the ships at the port.

“This year is the 90th anniversary of Independence, so the festival will be a fairly large-scale one. After all, there are only 10 more years until this kingdom's 100th year of monarchy. Besides, it seems a large number of aristocrats and merchants from other countries are gathering in this city.”

“What a shitty reason. They should just wait another 10 years and go wild in the 100th year.”

Hugh forced a strained smile at my sarcasm.

“Also, there is a big highlight. It seems a ‘saintess’ from the imperial capital will be attending this time. You don't get that much chance to see a living saintess; furthermore, the one coming this time is still a maiden in her teens. No wonder many people are gathering out of curiosity.”

“Hmm”

I nodded ambiguously. The topic Hugh was talking about was totally irrelevant to me. Hugh sighed when he saw me yawning.

“Not showing any interest even to the ‘saintess’ of miracles, you’re really unpatriotic, Sword”

“Unfortunately, I haven’t come across any miracles yet.”

By the way, it seems ‘Saint’ and ‘Saintess’ are the titles bestowed only to the people who have caused ‘miracles’ more than once in their lives. Most of them are recorded in the church after death, and it is said that the current living saints are so few that they can be counted on one hand in the whole country.

But, in my opinion, this whole thing about ‘miracle’ seems fishy to me. My thought is that it depends wholly on the pope's judgment.

“So, what kind of miracles did this Saintess-sama do?”

“It is said that she predicted the future; three times so far.”

I laughed scornfully. Whatever

“How nice would it be if she were to predict my future.”

“......Good grief, It seems the festival topics are impossible for you now.”

“That’s right. Is there any news about people's misfortune, other than mercenaries? The more miserable, the better. One that is enough to make me think my situation is still better.”

I said with a nasty smile. Hugh only shrugged his shoulders and turned back with a cup in his hand.

“So, what are you going to do in the future?”

Without looking back, Hugh asked me from the other side of the counter while washing the cup. After sighing dramatically, I twisted my mouth and made the surrendering gesture by raising my hands lightly.

“I don’t know, it is all over.”

“How about you look for other mercenary guilds?”

“You wouldn’t bother to move from a sunken ship to a sinking ship, right?”

The age of mercenaries is no more———

Recalling those words, I clicked my tongue.

“A sunken ship, huh”

After closing the water tap, Hugh turned around to look at me with an indescribable expression.

“In fact, harmful effects are appearing in various places. Thanks to those ‘sailors’.”

“Serve them right”, I snorted.

“With this kind of treatment, even incurable fools will fly into a rage. Especially so if they are hot-blooded fools.”

“Right now, there are some areas in which the public order is getting worse due to the jobless former mercenaries. Do you know what happened this morning? I heard that some people even robbed the graveyard of the former emperor.”

I broke out laughing unintentionally.

“If they did this as a retaliation… As expected, mercenaries are full of idiots. The former imperial faction is a disturbing element in the Vatican. The church guys would just applaud when this symbolic grave was raided.”

“I think they were just simply aiming for valuables. It is likely treasures were buried together with the former emperor Leone in the graveyard.”

“If you start relying on the properties of other people—no, even dead people— without a doubt, you are over as a human being.”

I sipped the coffee placed in front of me in a depressed manner. The fierce rivals, who once went throat to throat with each other, are now grave-robbers—it is so miserable to the point that even I feel pity.

“Well, it was such a very sudden development after all. In any case, nobody would have thought that most of the mercenary guilds in the city would collapse in less than two weeks. I am really surprised by the skills of Cardinal Malmsteen.”

“Even so, it is really an unusually fast maneuver. What exactly has happened? Does the cardinal have some resentments toward mercenaries? Or, is it because he is afraid that we might cause trouble during the festival, becoming a laughing stock for other countries?”

“I can see that happening if it's those unruly mercenaries.”

Hugh smiled bitterly.

“Perhaps, it might be due to the Cardinal merits point system added by the Central Parliament. The national subsidy budget for each mercenary guild seemed to be quite large. And, I heard that their ‘Utopia Policy’ wasn’t able to progress favorably due to that.”

“Such stupidity”

About a year ago, the Vatican implemented a new policy, commonly known as [Utopia Policy].

According to the church, it seems to be ‘a policy to achieve a higher international standing of the Papal States of Unaria through the more solid internal governing and total unification of the armed forces in the country’. In my opinion, this policy has only ideal words and no concrete goal.

“By getting wrapped up in such stupidity, we are now shedding tears. I really feel like starting a rebellion at the imperial capital to convey my current feelings.”

“For starters, why don’t you go hijacking the transcontinental railroad?”

I snorted at Hugh's cynicism.

“Not a bad idea”

Laughing lightly, Hugh took out new coffee beans from the cupboard. While grinding it with a miller, he said.

“It is impossible even for a joke. Rumors have it that there will be large-scale recruitment from the Crusaders in Ixlaha. Without a doubt, public security will improve. Although the former mercenaries are making a fuss right now, they will be suppressed soon.”

When I heard that, I reflexively stopped my hand that was reaching out to the coffee.

“......is that true?”

“Yup, the recruitment for the member selection test has already started. But, with this timing, the exam place is likely crowded with jobless mercenaries.”

Hahaha, laughed Hugh. But, I didn’t laugh. Seemingly doubtful with me, Hugh looked at me suspiciously.

“......Sword, what are you thinking?”

“Crusaders, heh. This isn’t bad either.”

I smirked while rubbing my chin.

As the name implies, Crusaders are the military forces directly controlled by the Vatican. Their incomes are much higher than those of mercenaries; furthermore, they don’t have to worry about employment for the rest of their lives. It is such a perfect job.

Looking at my seriously pondering face, Hugh became speechless.

“Weren’t you talking about starting a rebellion against the church just earlier?”

“Mercenaries don’t choose their employer, only rewards matter. You know that too, right?”

“You aren’t even a mercenary anymore.”

Hugh sighed and continued.

“It’s not that I am saying you can’t, but you should give it up. Being a crusader isn’t just about strength, but your education also matters. As for you who didn’t even go to school properly, this will only end up wasting your time.”

“In short, you are saying I am an idiot, right?”

“I want you to know that my kindness prevents me from speaking frankly about some matters.”

Looking at the refreshing-looking Hugh from the profile, I made a disgusted expression. It is vexing, but I can’t deny his words.

“But, you can’t be so sure without seeing the result, right? Perhaps, someone like me can be unexpectedly accepted.”

“People who say such things will definitely fail.”

“You really are a cold-hearted person. Have you ever thought about pushing your buddy’s back even a little?”

“If you say so……”

After saying that, Hugh started searching for something in the cabinet at the back of the counter.

What he took out was yesterday morning's newspaper.

“Here, let me push your back with this.”

What he showed me was a leaflet titled ‘Crusaders Recruitment Guidelines’ included in that newspaper.

“It seems there will be a briefing session at the north square’s central church tomorrow. Go listen to their talks. And then, you will give up.”

With a sneer, I took that paper.

“If one is told irritating and nerve rubbing things to an extent, one will be motivated in reverse.”

“Unfortunately, motivation alone will get you nothing.”

“Just don’t cry later”

“Let me return those words to you.”

Hugh shrugged his shoulders at this light exchange. I sneered lightly and drank the remaining coffee in one go. I felt around in my jacket’s pocket, grasped the coins, and placed them on the counter without checking.

“The price of the coffee, I don’t need any change.”

Having said that, I left the seat gallantly, but a cool-headed voice from Hugh reached me.

“50 cents is not enough, Sword.”

I clicked my tongue.

“Don’t be so stingy, we are friends, right?”

“I see, I get it now”

Having said that, Hugh smiled brightly.

“Then, it is two cups of coffee. You are short of 2.80 dollars, Sword.”

“Wasn’t one cup your treat?”

“We are friends, right?”

I clicked my tongue once again.