CH 17

I don’t understand what happen.

All I know is that I’m alive.

That’s good right?

But why is tha monster that tried to eat me throwing up.

The people around me were stunned, unable to understand the sight of him struggling to spit out something.

Some ask [What happened?],

I who was covered in saliva from top to bottom also wants to know. All I know is that I survived.

There’s no way for us to stop the monster from fleeing and the only thing we can do is watch as it makes it’s escape. Everyone who was dumbfounded was staring at one place. No one tried to call out to me… No one can. I too just sat there in silence.

What happened? Everyone ask.

What did you do? They ask.

I myself didn’t do anything, so I can’t answer those question. Frankly I know that I died in that showdown already. But for some reason I survived.

Time pass and the cooler our head gets the more awkward the atmosphere become. The pushing and showing on who to talk first generates silence until someone I never expected raised her hand.

With a slur, Cazetta said:

[Commander… I’m sorry if this sound rude but…]

[Say it.]

[When was the last time you take a bath?]

[I don’t remember… I don’t remember doing it for the last 3 years]

Everyone freezes at my response. Probably because they understood why the monster spit me out.

No, I wanted to believe that because I don’t understand anything anymore.

[Hey… Do I really stink?]

And all the members of my group turned their head away and thus an unbearable silence followed.

=================================================================================

When I return to L’Ecole, I took a bath silently after I arrived home. My head which was covered with saliva was focused, that the water pouring over me caused me to hardly catch my breath.

With no rights to refuse, A convention to denounce the smell of my body were held. Words that start with [I’ve always wanted to say something about the Commander’s body odor…] as if they were first.

I remember being told something like [It was sour] and [It hurts my eyes] so forth and so on.

It looks like they are universally dissatisfied with my body odor and this became an opportunity to complain about it and all I can is endure it, though I am already crying inside.

I intended to make it look like “I can’t say anything” but they returned it with “It’s because of your smell”

Remember this during our training!

After being refreshed, I went to the guild.

Arngiel looked at me with surprised, but when I told him our findings and the extermination of the goblins and the possibilities of the existence of multiple nests he made a bitter face while saying, [I knew it]

[And there’s one more piece of bad information]

Arngiel held his eyes. I’m starting to feel sorry for him since he’s always short on manpower and now he had the headache of handling multiple goblin’s nest

[We’ve discover a new type of monster]

I guessed he already know what we are about to say, that’s why he’s holding his head.

[As you see, I was beaten in a one on one match, I’m no match against it]

Saying this I show my fingers wrapped in bandage. By the way 7 of them are broken.

I guess I should have bought a new set of gauntlets, then again even those might not have done anything.

Anyway, I’m sure he already knows the result with our glaring injury, but that doesn’t tell anything about how bad it is to cross that guy.

[This guy impervious to arrows, sword won’t work and spear will break. Magic is hardly a threat as well and I couldn’t even hit him with the ]

[What the heck is that monster?]

[It’s about the size of an ogre, humanoid with long tail and is gray all over its body, It could stop Lloyd’s hammer with one hand and is definitely stronger than an ordinary ogre. It’s also show intelligence that it was wary of me from the start then crush me and left, leaving us one dead and many injured]

[How did you encountered it?]

[We found something hiding when we use a search magic when we are exterminating goblins, then we tried to smoke it out with fire magic]

[So you’re completely defeated]

Arngeil said then sighed.

[A new kind of monster that we can’t defeat and something that would beat us easily]

[What should we do?]

[For starter, I think we need a good magic sword and a high-level mage]

Also, not even Annie’s magic sword was able to damage it. I may have a duty to the guild but I’m not obligated to report everything.

[What do you think can we do?]

Arngeil snaps and replied

[Don’t ask me!]

[If the knights fight that monster, what do you think would happen?]

[Total defeat with the monster unharmed. What’s the use of those metal sword and armor if it wouldn’t even scratch it?]

I heard a sigh for the umpteenth time at my answer. I’m sure he is thinking about it a lot but I’m pretty sure he won’t find any solution soon.

[Do you really want me to report this?]

I answered him resentfully with

[That’s your job]

[I’m going to ask you to assist us in dealing with that monster from now on. Do your best to explain it to the lord and the knights]

[Oi,oi,oi! There’s no way that we were allowed to go to the Lord’s mansion, right?]

They want me to join in the counter measure but my mercenary group aren’t allowed at the Lord’s mansion.

[Ah there’s no problem, the is fairly evaluated on your trustworthiness and achievement and the only reason that you and your mercenary is not allowed at the mansion is because you stink.]

Arngeil’s word left me stunned.

Competence, performance and trust are the three extremely important factors that a mercenary group should have. And, the proof of this is the fact that you can make deals with the Lord directly.

Until now, I thought that the reason we couldn’t deal directly with the Lord is because of we weren’t competent enough.

[Listen here, The days where you could get by merit alone is past, you have to understand that you are the “face” of your mercenary group, and not some bandit. It’s just a matter of honor]

After a short lecture from the guild master, I went back to base and what awaited me a drink after work. Without exception, it become an unspoken rule to held drinking parties after work with the mindset that

I’m going to drink even if I can’t hold my glass because of these broken fingers.

[Today’s drink is on the commander, go drink till you drop!]

The group raised their tankard with Annie’s word as the cue.

[Oi! I said I’d buy you a drink but I didn’t say I’d buy everyone a —]

[you’re buying right!]

The menacingly looking Annie interrupts me and presses me.

[I thought you’re going to die so why are you still alive… Oi tell us what happened. At least, tell us something. Right?]

I guess she’s already drunk or something because she’s wobbling and shaking. I was told that she’s already drinking even before I returned.

(Seems like she wasn’t there when I washed.)

I can’t even imagine the dismay she might have felt

While being entangled for a while, I told the core member of the group about the conversation between me and guild master, while holding drinks between my hands. It led to me getting criticized for my body odor and apparently there are problems with various restaurant that was due to my body odor, and ask me to reevaluate my lifestyle.

I thought that’s not something you have to talk over drinks but their more insistent than I thought so I was left with no choice but to nod.

Anyway, I have to tell them everything before they get drunk

[I have something to tell you guys. Our immediate goal is to defeat the ].

At those word, everyone stopped and listened.

It made me question if they really are drinking.

[Id doesn’t matter if we were not in full strength, a loss is a loss. Conveniently in line with the Lord’s aim to expand this land, we were included to join in dealing with the new species. We may fight with other mercenary groups, or maybe even the knights. Perhaps they would know of our defeat and don’t take our information seriously and it may result in them being hurt.]

I took a deep breath once I’ve spoken that much

[I won’t let it end with me getting chewed out! Next time we would be at our best and I’m going to choke the life out of him!]

Everyone became excited. One of them is drunk already, I’ll tell her later. And the party goes on until late at night. Our routine is back.

(I bet there would be a hell of a bounty for that guy…)

The reason I suppressed information about that monster is to raise the threat level. I’m sorry about the other group but I will have you get a cut on the action. Knowing the power of that monster would raise the bounty even more and if it deals more damage, it’ll jump even more. And it would be us that would get that bounty.