Chapter 29 : Chapter 29

Chapter 29: How a Mercenary Rests (1)

The next day, they passed through the teleport gate heading to Pons.

When the bright light faded and Artier opened his eyes, he was momentarily lost in the scenery before him.

“Wow, it’s a huge lake!”

The faint scent of water felt from beneath the wooden planks he was stepping on.

Pons was a small maritime city built on a giant lake.

“Welcome to Pons.”

“Aah! I’ve missed this peaceful atmosphere sometimes!”

Jeina walked forward with a nostalgic expression.

Following her footsteps, the wooden floor of the street swayed slightly.

“Is there no solid ground at all?”

“Right. The buildings are made in the traditional way, but the streets between the buildings are connected by wooden bridges. They are quickly dismantled before a flood occurs, and reinstalled after the water recedes.”

In short, Pons was a collection of numerous floating houses connected by wooden bridges.

“Is there a reason for adopting such a method?”

“The designer of this city wanted to protect the lake’s environment as much as possible.”

As a city with a unique form, Pons’s appearance was quite different from Dorman.

First of all, the commonly seen street stalls were nowhere to be seen. It was impossible to do business on a wooden bridge that swayed even when people just walked on it.

The ground was clean without a single piece of trash, and the pungent smell of alcohol or the fishy smell of fish was not felt at all.

“It’s a well-managed city.”

“Isn’t it?”

Soon, Jeina arrived at a cozy-looking cabin and shouted with her arms spread wide.

“Ta-da! This is our hideout!”

“Hideout?”

“It was the base of the Alpha Mercenary Corps.”

“Can we still use it?”

“No problem. We bought it fair and square, after all.”

Kiiik.

As Gerard opened the door, candles and the fireplace automatically lit up.

A broom lying on the floor stood up and began to sweep the floor on its own, and the windows on all sides opened, letting the air out.

“A magic broom…. I guess it’s not enchanted with cleaning magic?”

“It’s not a place we come to often, so there’s no reason to enchant it with a magic that consumes a lot of mana.”

Answering Bow’s words, Gerard took out a Mana Stone the size of two finger joints from his pocket and inserted it into a groove on the wall.

“There should be enough rooms. You can go into any room and rest. As for Artier…”

“Yes?”

“Do you remember your room?”

At first, Artier didn’t understand Gerard’s hesitant question.

‘That’s right…. I was originally part of the Alpha Mercenary Corps too.’

Didn’t that mean his past self had visited this place before?

From the sounds of it, Artier’s personal room was also here.

‘But there’s no way I’d remember.’

When Artier showed an awkward smile, the slight glimmer of expectation in Gerard’s eyes melted away like snow.

“I see. It’s the leftmost room on the second floor.”

“Thank you.”

“Are you going to go up now?”

“Yes?”

“This place has been left unattended since we left last time. Go on up. Who knows, there might be a clue to recovering your memory.”

Hearing Gerard’s words, Artier couldn't help but become curious.

A room that his past self had used.

“Okay. I’ll go take a look.”

“Can’t I go see too?”

“You and I are going out to buy dinner!”

“Eek? I don’t want to! I’m curious!”

“You have to respect the master’s privacy.”

Chuckling at the sight of Jeina forcibly dragging Collie outside, Artier went straight upstairs.

Ignoring the sound of the creaking wooden planks, he moved forward, and there was an old door.

[Artier]

Staring at the unknown letters written in crooked handwriting, the four letters of his name came to mind.

As soon as he lightly pushed the door with his hand and entered, Artier was at a loss for words.

‘Did I come into the wrong room?’

In the room were a small table and a bed, and a basket made of woven plant stems.

On the table was a book that looked like a diary, and the basket was full of books of unknown names.

But what stole Artier’s gaze more than anything else were the large and small writings that filled one wall.

‘This is Artier’s room?’

The Artier he knew was a bit on the taciturn side.

He was evaluated by the surrounding NPCs as not being very talkative, and as the story progressed, his speech and actions even became venomous.

The world was that hopeless, but in the first place, Artier had a personality that was exceptionally sparing with words even within that world.

‘But this place is like…’

Artier opened the diary that was on the table.

Then, he saw writings full of youthful and pure emotions.

It felt like finding the secret place of a boy going through puberty.

[Succeeded in the first request! Although all I did was take care of the small fry in the back…. Still, I made armor from the skin of a goblin I caught myself!]

[Failed to enhance the armor…. But it’s a relief it wasn’t destroyed yet. Will the day come when I enhance this to its limit? I hope I can enhance it to the maximum. Because it’s the first armor I made myself!]

“So you broke that armor right before the tutorial.”

The hand of Artier, who was chuckling and turning the page, soon stopped.

[We decided to head to Jestion’s viscounty tomorrow. They say it’s an unidentified monster, is it really okay to accept this request? The ominous feeling won’t go away. The leader told me to just guard the rear, so I should stay quietly put….]

That was the last entry in the diary.

‘Different.’

He was so different from the Artier he knew.

Putting the diary into his inventory, Artier this time lay down on the bed as it was.

‘It feels awkward, as expected.’

A dry and slightly dusty scent.

The smell of bedding in a world without fabric softener is not very pleasant.

Artier stretched his hand upwards.

Looking at his scarred arm and the back of his hand, he brought up a question that he had been putting off for a long time.

‘Why did I possess Artier’s body?’

He couldn’t remember.

No matter how much he thought about it, he couldn’t recall any connection between his past life as Taehoon and his current life.

‘There’s no way I came to a world like this just because I was obsessed with a game.’

Or maybe, was that the biggest reason?

As expected, no answer came to mind. Artier sighed and lowered his arm.

“…?”

As he lay still, his gaze naturally went to the wall next to him.

He unconsciously read the graffiti written at the very bottom and couldn't help but chuckle.

[This room will be used by the youngest members of our Alpha Mercenary Corps. - Gerard]

There was the first piece of graffiti written by Gerard, and above it, the graffiti of other mercenary members continued upwards towards the sky.

[If the captain writes at the very bottom, how is the next youngest supposed to use it? - Ben]

[They’ll write next to it! - Jeina]

[Height limit for the youngest members, scheduled to get higher and higher - Deiker]

[I’m done for… I’ll write next to it - Dina]

“Gerard, you unexpectedly have this side to you.”

Among the graffiti were names Artier didn’t know. They were probably the names of mercenary members who had been there before and had left or died.

The graffiti had reached a level where it filled the room and was even invading the other wall at the end.

“There it is, as expected.”

And at the very end of that graffiti, as expected, there was Artier’s too.

[It starts now! - Artier]

A very stiff and error-filled piece of writing.

Although Taehoon didn't know the letters of this world, he could tell that it had been inscribed very carefully with great tension.

In his mind, he could see the image of an excited Artier, on the day he first got to use this room, taking a dagger and scratching the wall.

“…Everywhere I look, it’s full of memories.”

Although they were not his own memories, he could feel something instinctual burning hotly in a corner of his heart.

“Artier, are you inside?”

“I’m here.”

“We’re about to prepare dinner, so how about you come downstairs.”

“…I’m coming.”

Rustle.

He got up.

Artier looked around the room one last time and then left.

***

“Any harvest?”

Dinner time. Artier, who was quietly staring at his soup, looked up at Gerard’s words.

“Not really. There wasn't much to call memories.”

“Well, you’re also a mercenary, so you probably wouldn’t have kept a lot of luggage.”

He tore a piece of bread and dipped it in the soup.

A moment later, when he pushed the softened bread into his mouth, he strongly felt the familiar yet long-since-tiresome taste of the soup.

‘Spicy food… I miss it.’

In this medieval world, stimulating flavors were truly hard to find.

Spicy or salty things were all possessions of the rich.

It was only because he had recently earned some money that he was eating cream soup; on days with no money, it was common to eat just thin potato soup.

“What are you planning to do here now? Let me say this in advance, I have no intention of resting for long.”

At Bow’s words, everyone looked up.

“Do you have something to do?”

When Gerard asked, Bow nodded his head.

“If it’s not very important, I plan to act alone for a while.”

“I see. Are you coming back?”

“Yes. I’ll keep the communication open, so call me when you’re done.”

Although they had become a party, a party did not have as strong a bond as a mercenary corps.

Therefore, everyone showed no reaction as they watched Bow get up immediately after finishing his meal.

“What does the master plan to do from now on?”

“Me?”

“That’s right. Judging by your eyes, it seems the master does not intend to rest for long either.”

“Um…”

Artier rubbed his chin and was lost in thought.

In fact, Collie’s words had hit the nail on the head.

Possessing a player’s body, he could always maintain a state of being fully rested just by resting for a short while.

‘Simply put, I could go hunting, but it’s obvious there won’t be any high-level monsters around here. But it’s a waste of time to just rest.’

As Artier’s contemplation deepened, Collie chuckled and said.

“In that case, how about going outside with me?”

“Outside?”

“It makes no difference to me whether I am in the city or in the forest. And who knows? We might discover something while wandering in the forest.”

“There’s a Mercenary Guild here too. It wouldn't be a bad idea to take on some minor requests you can do alone.”

Was it because he was sick of going on another request after all that?

Gerard seemed to have given up on many things.

“Still, I doubt there would be any great requests near a resort.”

“It’s fine, we’re going for a change of pace anyway. It would be troublesome if it’s too difficult.”

Just as his bowl became empty, Artier put down his spoon and stood up from his seat.

The Mercenary Guild should still be open, so it seemed like a good idea to check tomorrow’s requests in advance.

“Collie, let’s go.”

“Understood!”

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