Act 3: Mercenaries

Act 3:
Mercenaries

 

ONE MORNING, I set out to make potions as the sun rose. I headed down to the brewery as soon as I got dressed. There, I often found Corinna already busy—she got up incredibly early.

In this world, it was typical to start working at the crack of dawn. I tried to follow that norm as well, but Corinna always seemed to be going at it by the time I caught up with her.

Once I had tried to meet her at the brewery when she got there, but she’d told me not to come until everyone else did. It turned out that she worked on private projects before the brewery opened to everyone else. She wouldn’t tell me any details, but I got the impression this work was related to those secret recipes I kept hearing about.

When I arrived at the brewery, Corinna was once more hard at work.

“Good morning,” I chirped.

“Oh, good morning, Sei. Could I ask you to prepare some mid-grade HP potions today? I have the quota written on that notepad over there.”

“Got it.”

Using the notepad as a reference, I put together the necessary ingredients. The herbs I assembled on my work desk were a bit different from the ones I used back at the institute—for one, this recipe required some herbs we didn’t typically use, but overall, it had fewer total ingredients. As it turned out, this was Corinna’s personal brew.

As I stirred the ingredients in a pot, the door to the room opened with a bang. Although it had been a few hours since we started, it was still pretty early in the morning. I looked at the door in surprise, wondering who the heck would be storming in at such a time.

The man in the door was so tall he could only be described as a giant, and he had a frightening look on his face as he strode into the room.

His height wasn’t the only big thing about him. He was also, ah, how should I put it? Thick.

The Knights of the Third Order were muscular, sure, but this guy surpassed them in every anatomical regard. His arms and chest were utterly stacked. He was so huge, his mere presence made the room feel cramped.

His hair was short and brown—a similar color to Johan’s, actually, though his seemed a bit dryer. I’d never noticed it before, but it seemed Johan took good care of his hair.

More importantly, this man’s amber eyes were terribly sharp. As he surveyed the room, he spotted me and peered. “Hmm? Are you one of Granny’s apprentices?”

By “Granny,” did he mean Corinna? She had been teaching me a ton, and I felt like there was an unspoken agreement that I was something like one of her apprentices, but I wasn’t sure if I could make a real claim to the title.

As I was struggling with how to answer, Corinna came out from the back room. “What’s all this ruckus first thing in the morning? Can’t you be a bit quieter when you come in?”

“Hey, I tried.”

“You call that trying?” Corinna sighed. “What do you want?”

“Oh, right, I came here to pick up the potions we ordered yesterday.”

“You really think we’d be done with an order you placed last night?”

“Oh, uh, no, of course not, and I’m sorry, but it’s just, we’ve suddenly been summoned…to…” Under Corinna’s sharp glare, the man’s voice weakened and he trailed off. The way he started faltering made him seem like a dejected dog who had just been scolded. I could almost see his doggy ears drooping.

While Corinna was small, she was a terror when she got angry. This big guy was flinching back from her.

However, I could understand her irritability. We had only received the order he was asking for the prior evening, just when we were finished with work for the day. It had come from a mercenary, though not this man. Also, the mercenary hadn’t mentioned a deadline, so we’d been planning to finish the order by this afternoon. In fact, I was working on part of it at that very moment.

It wasn’t a problem, though.

“I guess you’ve left us no choice then. Sei?”

I nodded to Corinna. “On it.”

And so, I went into the back room to retrieve a bunch of extra potions from the storage rack. They had asked for quite a number, so the man wore a look of surprise when he saw that we could, in fact, match the order ahead of time. He must not have expected us to actually be done yet.

And, well, usually there wouldn’t be any way to have an excess of potions during an herb shortage, buuut… Yup. That was on me.

We’d wound up inadvertently stockpiling them while I was practicing Corinna’s secret recipe for mid- and high-grade potions. Of course, I had obtained her permission for this. According to Corinna, “They’ll be needed before long anyway.”

Thus, we had quite a trove of potions stored away in the brewery in case of emergencies—just like the trove we had back at the Research Institute of Medicinal Flora.

“I knew we could count on you, Granny,” said the man.

“Hmph. Sei’s the one you should be thanking, not me.”

“Sei?”

“She’s the one who made all these, but I can vouch for their effectiveness.”

The man glanced at me again.

I introduced myself with a bow and a, “Sei, here.”

The man strode over to me. “The name’s Leonhardt. I’m in charge of this castle’s mercenary company.”

He held out his right hand to me. I assumed he was asking for a handshake, so I held out mine and he grasped it firmly in his own. He grinned and clapped me on the shoulder. “Pleased to meet ya.”

I couldn’t help but stagger.

“Leo! You shouldn’t be so rough with women!”

“Whoa! Sorry!”

“I-It’s all right…”

I stood straight again and glanced up at Leonhardt to find him wearing a nervous expression of panic mixed with regret. Since he apologized so quickly, I was sure he wasn’t a bad guy.

“I’m really sorry about that,” he said again. “Are you okay?”

“Yes, I’m fine.” I smiled.

His expression melted into relief. “Thanks for the potions.”

He didn’t wait to hear my response as he scooped up the box of potions and swept out the door.

The brewery went silent once more.

That guy sure was energetic. The room seemed even quieter than usual once he was gone.

 

***

 

Early that afternoon, Corinna brought me to one of the vast fields of herbs that grew in the area.

We had passed through a field of wheat when we arrived in Klausner’s Domain, but in the opposite direction lay the fields for medicinal herbs. The palace had an enormous herb garden, but these fields were far larger—I wouldn’t have expected anything less from this domain.

There was also a forest at the boundary, so I couldn’t say the fields extended as far as the eye could see, but they were cultivated all the way up to the forest edge.

The fields were outside the protection of the town walls, but it was safe according to Corinna. Monsters rarely approached the walls, and the ones that did were quite weak. Corinna assured me that if anything dared show itself, she would be able to handle it herself.

In a corner of the great fields, Corinna was giving me another lesson in herbology. In short, we were doing fieldwork. I was squatting down in the middle of a field, listening to her explanation while I studied the plants growing around us.

I actually didn’t know anything about the plant I was presently looking at. It might well have been unique to this world. Or, at the very least, it was one I hadn’t heard of back when I was getting into aromatherapy and so forth in Japan.

As I examined the specimen, Corinna taught me the identifying characteristics of its appearance, its medicinal benefits, and things to be cautious of when harvesting a sample.

“It doesn’t have any special effects on its own, but when mixed with other herbs, it can increase the potency of HP restoration.”

“So that’s why you can use fewer ingredients when you mix it in with standard recipes.”

“Correct.”

This was the herb that Corinna used in her secret recipe. I hadn’t recognized it at first, as the ones I had used in the potions had already been dried. According to her, since its only effect was catalytic, it generally wasn’t recognized as a “medicinal herb,” per se.

I see. So it might actually be a plant that exists back in my world, too—it just wouldn’t have been in my aromatherapy dictionaries. I got the feeling it hadn’t been categorized as an herb in Japan, either.

Corinna finished her explanation, and we stood up to head over to the next patch.

I was stretching out the kinks in my body when I heard a shout from behind. “So this is where you’ve been!”

I turned in the direction of the unfamiliar voice to find a muscular man loping toward us down the path between the fields. It was Leonhardt, the man I had met just that morning.

I glanced beyond Leonhardt as he rushed toward us, suddenly caught up in a memory of an old friend of mine—she really loved muscles. Like, she was obsessed. My dear friend, never have I have ever wished you were here more than I do in this moment. I bet you’d think you’d gone to heaven.

I hoped they forgave me for my faraway, distracted look.

Leonhardt seemed to have just returned from an expedition, because there were a ton of men behind him—his mercenary company, I presumed. Leonhardt possessed a praiseworthy physique, but the others with him had to be commended as well. What would you call these types again? Macho? Every single one of them had that same admirable body type.

If my friend were here, surely she’d be pumping her fist in excitement. As I was thinking such worthless thoughts, Leonhardt finally caught up to us.

The moment he got close enough, he started talking rather animatedly. “Hey, Granny! Were those potions you gave us this morning new?”

“Huh? Why do you say that?”

“They were way more effective than usual!”

“I see. That’s nice.”

“Yeah, but…so that means they weren’t new, then? Did you give us high-grade ones by accident?”

“Don’t be thick. There’s no way we could make that many high-grade potions in these times.”

Leonhardt’s shoulders drooped at Corinna’s curt manner.

By “new,” does he mean a new type of potion?

I was pretty sure the potions we’d given them this morning were the ones I’d made while practicing with the secret recipe. Judging from what he was describing, it sounded like my fifty-percent-bonus curse was at it again.

“But there’s no way mid-grade potions could have been that effective.”

“Yeah, yeah.”

The other mercenaries came up from behind Leonhardt and surrounded us, all of them musing over the incredible potency of the new potions.

“Even the low-grade ones were more potent today,” said one.

“I don’t think they were better than the mid-grade ones, but maybe they were about the same?” said another.

Well how was that for déjà vu?

“Didn’t I tell you that I could vouch for their effectiveness?” Corinna said.

“Oh yeah, you weren’t the one who made them.” Leonhardt suddenly turned toward me. Everyone else followed his gaze as well.

Augh! Again?! I really hated getting ganged up on like this.

As I was at a loss, Corinna swooped to my rescue. “I suppose you could say they’re new. Those were indeed mid-grade HP potions we gave you this morning, but they’re made from Sei’s secret recipe.”

“For real?! That’s amazing! I can’t believe she can make something like that at her age!” Leonhardt perked up and started clapping me on the shoulder again.

“Ow!” I staggered.

“Leo!” Corinna snapped.

I really wish he would learn a little restraint.

I smiled awkwardly as Leonhardt apologized once more, looking deflated. “Sorry.”

My secret recipe, huh? I had only included the ingredients Corinna told me to in the potions Leonhardt and his company had been using—the only difference had been my magical power, which I called on to imbue the potions as they were brewed.

My magical power was…unusual. Different from everyone else’s, to say the least. And I suppose you could say it was an ingredient, which meant that it did, kind of, sort of, constitute my own secret recipe.

However, true secret recipes required a great deal of effort to design, especially those that were exceptionally potent. Calling what I did my secret recipe just because of my inborn powers made me feel kind of pathetic. I mean, I’d also definitely made the potions using Corinna’s recipe as a base.

I surreptitiously glanced Corinna’s way. She merely raised an eyebrow and gave me a slight nod. She was probably telling me not to worry about it.

I still felt bad though, so I gave her a slight bow in a subtle way so that Leonhardt and his men wouldn’t notice. She just smiled back.

The men didn’t notice this exchange, thank goodness. After some more lively discussion, they headed back to the castle.

“Still though, you’re amazing. It’s great that we have more skilled alchemists here. I hope you’ll keep on making those potions for us!” Leonhardt declared.

“Uh, will do.”

He was about to pound me on the shoulder again with his goodbye, but he seemed to remember what had happened earlier and stopped at the last second. He looked embarrassed for a moment before putting his raised hand on his head to scratch it.

With that farewell, Leonhardt’s lively company headed back to the castle.

I sighed. Corinna patted my back. I glanced over at her to find an exasperated look on her face as she chuckled. “Let’s head to the next spot.”

“Okay.”

At her encouragement, we headed to the next patch of unusual herbs.

 

***

 

I reached a good stopping place for my work, said my goodbyes to everyone in the brewery, and went out into the hallway. As I was heading back to my quarters, I spotted Albert coming toward me from the opposite direction.

“Lord Hawke.”

“Sei. I’m glad I found you. I was looking everywhere.”

“You were?”

He’d come to the brewery specifically to meet up with me.

“Did something happen?” I asked.

“Not as such, but I wanted to tell you a bit about our initial survey.”

“Sure—should we go now?”

“Yes. Let’s go to the quarters reserved for the Third Order.”

We gave each other some general life updates and other small talk as we made our way to our destination. I told him about everything I was learning in the brewery from Corinna and the other alchemists—stuff I couldn’t learn anywhere else.

Because Lord Klausner had introduced me as the Saint, everyone had kept a respectful distance from me at first, but they’d warmed up to me once they heard me asking Corinna a nonstop slew of questions. Or maybe it would be more accurate to say they were as interested in me as I was in them because of my work at the Research Institute of Medicinal Flora. The first time one of them talked to me, she reminded me of Yuri when he went on one of his wild magic tangents.

And it wasn’t just her, either. As you’d expect from a place referred to as a holy land, everyone in the brewery was passionate about herbology, and all of them got that light in their eyes whenever we really dug into the topic.

That first was just the start—as we talked, gradually more and more people had joined our circle.

They had all sorts of questions, mostly about what herbs the institute was presently studying or if we were working on any new recipes. I could only answer with information from our official publications—ongoing research was kept private—but it took so long for any new info to get to Klausner’s Domain from the capital that there were plenty of things they hadn’t heard about yet. They thanked me heartily for the updates. I was just happy to help.

Things got really exciting when I brought up using herbs in cooking—my new friends were over the moon with delighted interest, just like Johan had been when I first told him about medicinal cooking.

Corinna was especially interested in these medicinal dishes, and she asked me a ton of questions. She was interested in trying some of them, but unfortunately, I didn’t know any recipes. Therefore, I could only talk about the meals I made at the capital and the effects of the herbs I used. Granted, that alone was enough to garner everyone’s undivided attention.

During these exchanges, I became quite well acquainted with everyone who worked in the brewery. And, of course, I got to ask my share of questions, too. Some folks were even willing to share their secret recipes with me, and overall I learned a ton of things that sounded like they would be useful for my future research. I was terribly grateful to all of them.

“It sounds like working at the brewery has been a good experience for you,” Albert said.

“It really has!”

“I’m glad you seem to be enjoying yourself.”

“Oh, uh, um…”

He laughed, and I glanced up to find him looking at me with a gentle expression. I supposed I’d gotten a bit enthusiastic, even though I was talking about such dry, technical things as herbs and potions that Albert didn’t know the first thing about.

I felt a bit, how do you say, mortified, and my cheeks started to glow. I looked down reflexively and heard him chuckle again.

When we arrived at the quarters for the Third Order, I discovered that “quarters” actually meant “entire two-story building” on the castle grounds. Albert explained that the knightly Orders always stayed in this building while visiting Klausner’s Domain.

The first floor was a waiting room, so the building opened up into a spacious hall as soon as we went inside. A bunch of knights were gathered around a long table, where they were discussing a map laid across it.

I was acquainted with all of them, so when they noticed Albert and I enter the room, they waved casually in greeting. I followed Albert through the great hall and up the stairs in the back. The second floor was divided into several quarters, and Albert was using one of them as his office. Inside was a desk and two sofas, just like in his office back at the palace barracks. At his prompting, we sat facing one another.

“Let’s jump right in, then,” he said.

“Of course.”

Albert launched right in without any further preamble. The knights had been split into several squads for the survey. They had explored all four cardinal directions in rotation as they scouted the periphery. The knights we passed downstairs had just returned from their own sally.

As they scouted, they were slaying any monsters they came across. According to the reports, there were as many monsters here as there had been around the capital, pre-swamp-purification. Once the knights completed their scouting, they would begin undertaking full-scale monster-slaying expeditions, but they expected it would take some time for things to become stable.

Albert agreed with this assessment. “I really wish I could get you back to the palace sooner rather than later, but unfortunately…I expect it will take time.”

“Don’t you worry about me. I’ve been learning a ton.”

“I see.” His apologetic look turned to one of relief. Then he smiled—perhaps remembering how enthusiastic I’d been just minutes ago.

Ack. Sorry I’m so crazy about potions. Thinking that reminded me of something. “If you’ve been running into monsters during your surveys, then that means you’ve been using potions, right?”

“That’s right.”

“How’s your supply?”

“We have the stores we brought from the capital, but if we run out, I’m planning to buy some here in town.”

“Um. Wouldn’t you like me to make them?”

“You?”

“Yeah. Of course, I’ll need you to get me the ingredients, but I think it’ll be cheaper to buy the herbs than it would be to buy the potions themselves.”

“But don’t you need your equipment?”

“Well… I was thinking of asking Lord Klausner if I could use the brewery for this exact purpose.”

“I see. Then I’ll go ahead and request permission for you.”

“Please! Thank you.”

While the knights continued to scout, they wouldn’t need all that many potions—hopefully. But once we started going on full-fledged expeditions, the consumption rate would increase substantially. Considering how many knights were going with us, I imagined I’d be at work for a while.

Fortunately, I now knew Corinna’s secret recipe, so I would be able to conserve the amount of ingredients I needed to meet demand. Even the local town suffered a bit from the overall herb shortage, after all. Also, it did make more economic sense for me to do it…

And, I admit, I just kind of wanted the excuse to practice. Although I had Corinna’s permission to do so, I’d been trying not to go too overboard for the sake of discretion. I kept having flashbacks to the lines and lines of potions I’d left behind at the institute.

However, if I was going to supply both the mercenary company and the Third Order, then surely it would be okay to get diligent and make a few more.

“Actually—one thing, about the expeditions,” I said.

“What about them?”

“Will the mercenaries be going with you?”

Albert gave me an odd look.

What’s with him?

He thought his answer over for a bit before giving an evasive reply.

The day we had arrived in Klausner’s Domain, Albert and his knights had received the report on the monster situation while I idled in my chamber. At that time, Albert had met the leader of the mercenary company, but it sounded like they hadn’t really meshed well.

The mercenary company that protected Klausner’s Domain was well known for its brawn and bravado, so they had rarely asked the Orders for assistance. However, the knights were necessary this time, given the severity of the issue and its far-reaching impact.

Nevertheless, the company probably took pride in their work, even if they defended the land for pay rather than out of some honorable calling. I could see why they might be reluctant to work with the knights—I had heard they only went to the initial meeting because Lord Klausner told them to.

In any case, even though the knights and mercenaries were working in tandem, they weren’t acting together. Instead, they split up their groups and visited different allotted zones to slay monsters.

Now that I thought about it, the guy Albert met in his meeting with Lord Klausner might have been Leonhardt. Hadn’t he mentioned he was in charge of the company when we first met?

At the time, he hadn’t seemed like the kind of person to give people the cold shoulder just because they were from the capital or anything. Then again, what did he really know about me? He only ever got my name.

Albert interrupted my thoughts. “Something the matter?”

“Was Leonhardt the mercenary you met?”

“Yes… You know him?”

“I met him this morning—in the brewery. He came to pick up some potions.”

“I see. Did he say anything about all this to you?”

“No, not at all.”

Leonhardt thought I was Corinna’s apprentice, so Albert had nothing to worry about there. But there was always the possibility Leonhardt would find out I’d come here with the Third Order.

I wasn’t too worried about that, though. I had met the mercenaries in the field just hours ago, and they had been so good-natured. Even though I’d had my reservations about them at first, I could tell I was starting to warm up to them. Maybe that was a bit too optimistic of me?

“Don’t worry about Leonhardt—I like him,” I said. “Anyway, when do you think the expeditions will start?”

“Tomorrow we’ll be scouting again, but I’ll be sure to let you know when we change tack.”

“Sounds good.”

Guess I won’t be needed for a little while yet. In that case, I’ll do a bit more studying before I start prep—oh, and I should probably tell Corinna we might be selling potions to the Order, huh?

As I started putting together my plans in my head for the next few days, I said goodbye to Albert and at last returned to my quarters.