Chapter 5

Chapter 5

The First Romance-Fantasy Male Lead

“What do we do, Henry?”

“I don’t know either. I’m scared.”

Up ahead, I could see the lord and the Mercenary King walking in front of us. And behind us was the Mercenary King’s grandson, glaring at our backs.

My head feels like it’s being stabbed.

We were heading toward a clearing that other people rarely visited.

“Before we get there, should we slip away by saying we need to grab our weapons?”

“Yeah, that sounds good.”

“Dad!!!”

“I didn’t mean tell him right this second... Well, whatever.”

A countryside territory like ours doesn’t even have a proper knight order! So of course we don’t have anything resembling standardized weapons.

Naturally, we had weapons specially made for ourselves at the blacksmith. We usually trained with wooden swords, but they were custom wooden swords made specifically for us.

If we said we were going to get our weapons, then stopped by our hideout first, we could buy ourselves time to make a plan.

“What is it, Rose?”

“If you want us to show you how we train, Henry and I need to go get our weapons.”

“Those wooden swords?”

“Yeah!”

“You can just borrow some training weapons from the mercenaries. They’ll surely have some.”

“No! They have to be our weapons!”

Right as Rose began digging her heels in, I stepped between them.

“Please wait.”

“Henry, talk some sense into Rose.”

“I agree with Rose.”

Rose was a troublemaker. Such a troublemaker that even her father, the lord himself, struggled with her. And since I was usually the one who kept Rose under control, the lord began listening when I said that.

“Mercenary King.”

“Yes?”

“I’m sure you understand how important it is to use a weapon you’re accustomed to. Especially when that weapon was made for you.”

The Mercenary King said nothing and simply stared at me, gesturing with his eyes for me to continue.

“For learners like us, a single familiar tool can make a noticeable difference. Wouldn’t it be better to show you something we won’t be ashamed of before a hero like yourself? If you permit it, we’d like to bring the custom wooden swords we normally use.”

“Go fetch them. Now that you put it that way, I’m looking forward to seeing what you can do.”

The Mercenary King burst out laughing and waved us off.

“Thank you. Let’s go, Rose.”

“Okay.”

I grabbed Rose and hurried away, pretending we were in a rush. Only after we’d put some distance between us did we slow down and start walking normally.

“What do we do?”

“No idea. You’re supposed to be the brains between us, Henry.”

“Sorry, Rose. I’m really not that smart.”

Most of my plans were built on the assumption that Rose was a romance-fantasy heroine beloved by the world.

“But you’re still smarter than me, right?”

“That’s... true. Then what should we do? The best thing going for us is that we’re thirteen and living in the territory of some backwater countryside baron.”

“That future backwater countryside baron is me, you know?”

“But you’re poor and don’t even have a knight order.”

“Okay, execution for you.”

“I’m joking. Anyway, if those prejudices overlap, he might assume we couldn’t have developed properly and think our training is just children playing around. Then he might watch us like he’s humoring a couple of kids.”

“Doesn’t that seem unlikely?”

“Rose. You only run the happiness circuit when there’s barely any chance of being happy.”

If the future looked perfectly bright, you wouldn’t need to cope by imagining it. You’d just charge straight ahead.

“But! Our dear Mercenary King, judging by every rumor and every book written about him, is not! That kind of person! He’s absolutely going to take our training seriously!”

In other words, he’d probably expose everything, from our potential to how far we’d already grown.

“That’s why we need to approach the Mercenary King both as a real person and as a character in a novel.”

There’s no helping it. Time to summon Professor Cliché!

“We already have all the clues we need, so I’ll cut the useless explanation.”

“Okay.”

“Then what role does the Mercenary King play in our world?”

Just hearing the title Mercenary King brings a few keywords to mind, and if we take some of those...

“Veteran of countless battles, symbol of the passing of one generation to the next, and beyond that, mentor.”

“Mentor?”

“Yeah. Originally, you probably went poking around everywhere, seduced the Mercenary King’s grandson too, and swung a sword around as a joke, right?”

“I don’t need to seduce anyone.”

As she said that, Rose moved slightly closer to my side.

“What’s with you all of a sudden? You’re making it hard to walk. Anyway, during that process he probably noticed your talent, then came here periodically and taught you. Huh, would that make the Mercenary King’s grandson the childhood-friend type?”

“My childhood friend is you.”

“It was an example. Anyway, mentor. And as for symbolizing the next generation taking over...”

“That’s one you talk about a lot, right? Sacrifice.”

“Probably? Later, he might break through a wall at the last moment against an unbeatable enemy and die spectacularly, or sacrifice himself for the next generation.”

There was also the possibility he died even earlier and became a catalyst for his grandson’s character development.

“The important part is that the Mercenary King is trustworthy.”

“Why does that matter?”

“Characters who serve as mentors usually side with their disciples. And even if we ignore his narrative role and look at him as a real person, the Mercenary King is honorable and trustworthy.”

“I get it.”

“Exactly. That means even if we reveal our abilities only to the Mercenary King and get a little help, he’ll keep quiet. He might even help us more.”

That guy was an ultra-SSS-grade encounter and probably part of the original plot. If this were some mediocre opportunity, I’d do everything possible to hide our abilities, but this was different.

As we talked while walking, I suddenly sensed someone behind us.

“What are you doing here?”

Breaking through the darkness, the Mercenary King’s grandson appeared.

“Grandfather said he’d look at your abilities, yet instead of hurrying back...”

He looked at us unpleasantly and gestured as though telling us to move faster.

“So what?”

Of course, our Rose doesn’t know how to hold back. She’s basically a pseudo mastiff. Please, just endure it.

“What did you say?”

His eyes narrowed as he looked at Rose. Confusion and irritation filled them.

“You’re not the one watching us, your grandfather is. It’s not even you helping.”

“Say that again, you.”

“Did I say anything wrong? You even crept up behind us just now, then suddenly appeared and started talking like that. Who do you think you are?”

“I’m the Mercenary King’s grandson!”

“His grandson. And even if he is the Mercenary King, he’s still a mercenary. Someone who works for money, isn’t he?”

“What?”

As a commoner, I wanted to keep watching Rose headbutt her way through society, but when it’s time to stop her, you stop her.

“Rose, the Mercenary King was granted the title of count. He outranks you by several levels.”

Rose stiffened for a moment at that, rolled her eyes, then opened her mouth.

“Still, he’s ultimately a mercenary. And he himself said he wants people to treat him as a mercenary rather than a count. That’s his will, and it means he doesn’t want to lose who he is as a mercenary. We should respect that.”

Rosey-Rose, isn’t that just an excuse for what you said a moment ago?

“Hah.”

“And we’re late, while there are bandits in the mountains. Isn’t it natural for him to worry? Maybe that’s why you came after us. Right?”

“Yes. That’s correct.”

It was obvious he had actually come here thinking, How dare you waste my grandfather’s time! but dressing it up like that wasn’t necessarily bad.

Besides, he didn’t seem to have heard our conversation.

“Hurry up.”

“Yes.”

“No. Why should I! Listen carefully! And go tell them! I’m Rose!”

“Rose! Please! We’re actually causing trouble if we deliberately go slow!”

I grabbed Rose and dragged her along, walking faster than before toward our base.

***

“Interesting.”

The Mercenary King’s grandson, Eril, smiled faintly as he looked at Rose.

He had been annoyed when that tomboyish girl had kicked open the door, and even more annoyed that she was wasting his grandfather’s time.

So when they seemed to be taking too long, he ignored his grandfather’s instructions and chased after them to drag them back himself.

He had assumed it was all a performance meant to catch either the Mercenary King’s eye or his own. He thought they were stalling so they could at least swing their weapons around clumsily beforehand.

Usually, whenever he chased after girls himself, they would act coquettishly or try to seduce him, and he assumed the same thing would happen now.

But Rose immediately talked back to him and even brought up mercenaries. She looked nothing like the other pretentious girls, but rather like a bold warrior.

“Rose... Rose, is it? Certainly a flower with thorns.”

Without realizing it, he smiled toward the place Rose had disappeared, pictured her face once more in his mind, and started walking.

Just as Henry had predicted, he too was a romance-fantasy male lead devoted faithfully to cliché.

***

The Mercenary King, Lorik Wolfson, chatted with the lord while waiting for the boy and girl to return.

Whenever he happened to visit a territory like this, everyone generally reacted the same way.

They treated him well like the lord before him, then introduced their children.

The boys genuinely tried to show off, and some even earned praise from him.

The girls... well, saying they were pretty or, if they came from a count’s house or higher, that they might suit his grandson was still tolerable.

The problem was when people forced girls who had never even held a sword to pick one up, claiming they trained or liked fighting, all just to attract his attention.

Of course, he only cared about their training, stance, and fundamentals, so all they received in return was harsh criticism and disappointment.

And yet he always smiled and examined them anyway, simply because as a mercenary, if he received hospitality or money, he worked enough to repay it.

‘At least this time, she really does seem to be a girl who actually holds a sword. I should teach her properly.’

It wasn’t as though there were no women who walked the path of the sword. Judging by the lord’s reaction, the training seemed genuine, so he figured he should at least leave the girl with a good memory.

“Could only the Mercenary King watch our training?”

“Very well.”

So when the young lady asked everyone else to leave, he readily agreed.

He could tell she wasn’t wielding a sword just to impress his grandson.

And since she had learned swordsmanship out here on the frontier, he assumed she would be awkward and weak, and probably embarrassed to show it even in front of her father.

But once the two began training, and he seriously used mana to inspect their levels...

“What the fuck is that?”

He couldn’t stop himself from swearing at Rose’s talent.