Chapter 30

After parting ways with Aldis, the woman stepped into the lord's mansion and was led by a maid to a room that seemed to be a parlor.

"Please wait here until the preparations for the audience are complete. We will prepare a drink for you immediately."

The maid who had guided her urged the woman to take a seat and then quickly left the room.

The woman sat down on a sofa that was unusually soft and uncomfortable, and she glanced around the room.

The walls were adorned with realistic paintings, and the antique-style tables placed around the room were decorated with dazzling glasswork.

Anyone who saw them would recognize that each item was a first-class work of art.

Of course, when these items were traded, they required gold coins that ordinary people could not even imagine.

The numerous works of art and decorations were not just there to embellish the room.

They were symbols of wealth for the powerful and the result of their power being materialized.

From the moment a guest entered this room, they would feel the silent pressure of the wealth from the Duke of Tria.

This was one of the foolish yet tenacious practices that had continued for tens of thousands of years since humans began to form social groups and acquire status and rank.

The woman understood this, but she did not empathize with it.

Many Sylas and their creators could cherish and care for such humans, but as a mere daughter of a Sylas, the woman had little of the emotional capacity to do so.

That said, she had never thought of herself as pitiful or unfortunate.

She had her own mission, and others had theirs.

The power to fight and the ability to sense enemies had been given to her.

Indeed, at this very moment, she was searching for the many eyes that were watching her from a hidden room.

"So, you think you can hide?"

The woman took a sip of the tea that had been served, concealing her small murmur.

During the time the maid brought the tea and the time that followed, multiple eyes had been watching her every move through peepholes made in the slight gaps of the decorations.

She did not know why the lord of Tria had summoned her, but at least on the surface, she was being treated with kindness.

However, since she was being watched, she could not take this at face value.

If it were not for her master's orders, she would have left this unpleasant place long ago.

But since she had been ordered to meet with the lord, she had no choice but to wait obediently, albeit reluctantly.

After waiting for quite some time and taking a sip of her second cup of tea, she was finally called.

"I am very sorry for keeping you waiting. The preparations for the audience are now complete, so I will guide you."

Led by a different maid from the one who had initially guided her, the woman stepped further into the mansion.

After walking for about two minutes, she arrived at a large double door with sturdy guards on either side.

"Please enter here."

As the maid gestured with her hand, the guards opened the doors from both sides.

Beyond the slowly opening doors, a spacious hall could be seen, stretching about fifty meters in both depth and width.

The floor at the back of the room was raised, and in the center was a lavishly decorated chair, which was currently unoccupied.

From the entrance where the woman stood, a red carpet led to the chair, and on either side of the room, about twenty armed people were lined up.

The woman narrowed her eyes at the atmosphere.

The room itself was suitable for an audience.

Although it was the second largest city in the Nalgas Kingdom, the mansion owned by the lord of the city was spacious and lavishly decorated.

However, it seemed a bit too imposing for a guest.

The armed people standing on either side of the woman and the empty seat that the lord should have occupied were particularly noticeable.

Most importantly, despite meeting a powerful figure directly, she had not been asked to disarm or even inspected.

The woman walked calmly to the center of the room, not showing any suspicion.

"Stop there."

A man appeared from the back of the room.

He was an old man wrapped in a loose robe, with a rich white beard, and he called out to the woman with a voice that belied his age.

The woman stopped walking at his command and turned her gaze to the speaker.

The old man approached the unoccupied chair and stood beside it.

"I heard that the lord wishes to meet with you. Are you the lord of Tria?"

The woman's abrupt and rude question caused a stir in the room.

"You! What insolence!?"

A man seated at the head of the gathered people shouted, spitting as he did so, but the old man with the white beard reprimanded him.

"Hold your tongue, General. It is unreasonable to demand courtesy from a mercenary."

"Hmm..."

The man called the General reluctantly complied, but his expression clearly showed that he was not convinced.

"Well, to answer your question... I am not the Duke of Tria. I am Costas, who oversees the administration of the territory. I will hear your story on behalf of the Duke. Mercenary, what is your name?"

The woman responded with a businesslike answer.

"I have no name."

"You! Stop your nonsense!"

The General once again showed his anger towards the woman.

"I am not joking. What is not, is not. You may call me whatever you like."

The woman thought that the one being ridiculous was the other side.

She had been summoned because they had something to discuss, but the lord himself did not show up, and the old man who appeared as a substitute said he would "hear her story."

She had no business to discuss. She could not understand what she was supposed to talk about.

Her thoughts must have been reflected in her attitude, and Costas also showed clear dissatisfaction with the woman who had not even introduced herself.

"I was willing to overlook some rudeness, but not introducing yourself is too much... Well, it's fine. General, let's get this over with quickly."

"Hmm. Leave it to me!"

It seemed that the two had already decided on the course of action.

Costas addressed the woman again.

"Well, woman. I have heard that you have been repeatedly engaging in duels with other mercenaries within our territory. I have also heard that you are an undefeated strong fighter. I understand that one of our army's squadron leaders recently crossed swords with you."

The squadron leader of the lord's army? The woman tilted her head in thought.

Now that he mentioned it, she recognized the attire of the people surrounding her.

Though she did not remember them clearly, she thought that the man who had challenged her a few days ago had worn similar equipment.

"However, I find it hard to believe that a squadron leader of the Tria army was easily defeated by a traveling mercenary, especially a woman. Is such a thing possible? No, it should not be possible. However, rumors tend to grow tails. As a ruler, it is my duty to clarify the facts and convey them correctly to the people, don't you think?"

In essence, what Costas was saying was that they would bring the mercenary who had defeated the squadron leader to their home ground and crush her to cover up the defeat.

The lord's desire to meet with her was just a pretext.

"Hmm. Then let's get this over with quickly."

"Hmm. You don't seem completely foolish... Do you really think you can win against the elite of our army?"

Costas responded as if he had hit the mark.

The woman, who had her hand in her pocket, said:

"Then? Who will be my opponent? Is it all of you, including you?"

The man called the General spoke up in place of Costas.

"The proud warriors of our army will not resort to the cowardly act of surrounding one person! Decken! Step forward!"

A young warrior, probably the best among them, stepped forward.

To the woman, he seemed to be a skilled fighter, but only in a general sense.

He was far from the level of the woman or Aldis.

"I won't take your life, but be prepared for some injuries."

Decken declared as he drew his slender sword and took a stance.

"Can I use a real sword?"

"Of course. That's why we allowed you to keep your weapons. We are not so shameless as to boast our skills against an unarmed woman."

Decken added, "So, use what you are accustomed to."

The woman understood why she had not been asked to disarm, but she could not understand the other side's thinking.

It was absurd to call them to their own grounds, surround one person with twenty, and then claim they were not shameless.

This was the definition of shamelessness.

The woman took a dagger from her pocket and held it in her right hand.

While Decken lowered his stance and took a fighting stance, the woman stood still, holding her weapon.

"Let's go!"

Decken shouted and took a step forward, launching a preemptive strike.

The woman tilted her body slightly, narrowly avoiding the thrust.

"Not bad!"

Decken swung his sword again and again, but the blade never reached the woman.

She moved in a way that was hard to grasp, evading Decken's attacks.

It was like the swaying of a reed in the wind.

Eventually, fatigue began to show in Decken's continuous attacks.

His frustration grew as his attacks continued to miss the woman.

"How long do you plan to keep running away! You don't even have the time to counterattack!?"

Decken stepped back, catching his breath, and said to the woman.

"Hmm. Are you satisfied now?"

The woman took this as a sign of surrender.

"Then I'll go."

As she said this, she kicked off the floor.

"What! Where...!?"

Decken lost sight of the woman.

In the next moment, he felt his slender sword being knocked out of his hand.

The sword flew in a parabolic arc and landed on the floor a few meters away with an unpleasant thud.

"Do you still have the will to fight?"

The woman's dagger was pressed against Decken's throat.

"A... No..."

He could not understand what had happened.

The woman's speed, burst of power, and ability to slip into a blind spot in an instant were all beyond Decken's level.

"Decken... How could he..."

The General muttered, dumbfounded.

"Well, are you satisfied now?"

The woman, maintaining her arrogant attitude, said.

"Or do you still have doubts? If so, feel free to come at me all at once."

"Ugh... Just wait and see!"

The warriors standing in line all had expressions far from satisfaction.

The General, in particular, was so angry that his face was red, as if he was about to pounce.

Just as the woman was preparing for a continued fight, a new voice interrupted.

"Enough, General. This is unnecessary."

The General, Decken, Costas, and the surrounding warriors, except for the woman, all turned to the source of the voice and stood at attention.

"Lord Frederick!"

Following the others' gazes, the woman saw a man advancing from the back of the room.

He was in his early forties, with an excess of fat around his belly from a lack of exercise.

His eyes held a glimmer of intelligence, but to the woman, it seemed dim and murky.

"I have seen enough of your skills. Impressive."

The man called Frederick, who had been praising someone, sat down in the unoccupied chair.

This indicated that he was the lord of the mansion, the Duke of Tria.

Sitting heavily in the chair, the Duke said calmly:

"You, the woman, are as skilled as the rumors suggest. I like you. From today, serve me."

Without considering the woman's wishes, he began to decide her fate on his own.

"If you have such skills, you could immediately become a squadron leader... No, upon closer inspection, you are quite beautiful. How about becoming my bodyguard? Yes, that would be good. You can't bring a concubine to the battlefield, but you can serve as both a bodyguard and a companion."

With a lecherous smile, Frederick spoke unilaterally.

Of course, no one in the room tried to stop him. Neither Costas nor the General, nor Decken or the other warriors, dared to interrupt the Duke's words.

However, the woman, the only outsider in the room, who wore a displeased expression, was different.

"What are you saying? I have no intention of serving you."

The first to react to her rude words was the General.

"What, you! How dare you speak to His Excellency like that!"

The room, already filled with hostility, became even more tense.

Naturally, Frederick was not calm either.

"What did you say, woman? You said you have no intention of serving me?"

"I already have a master. I serve only my master, Aldis. If you are a stronger person than my master, then it would be a different story, but you do not seem to be."

With that, the woman turned on her heel and tried to leave.

"Wait! What do you mean!? Didn't you come here to join my service!?"

Stopping her foot, she turned her head and said to Frederick with her sky-colored eyes.

"The order I received from my master was to meet you here in the mansion. That is why I came here. Now that I have met you and spoken to you, I have fulfilled that order. There is no need for me to stay here any longer, so I will leave now."

Taken aback by this unexpected reaction, Frederick, who had been about to stand from his chair, watched the woman's retreating back with a stunned expression.

2017/11/02 Typo correction: 伺っている → 窺っている

2019/05/02 Typo correction: 向って言った → 向かって言った

2019/05/02 Typo correction: 検められてすらいない → 検められてすらいない。

2019/05/02 Misuse correction: 荒げる → 荒らげる

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2019/07/30 Typo correction: 剛の者と言う → 剛の者という

*Thank you for reporting the typo.