WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Mordor
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Unbound Magic Swordsman ◈
Chapter 15: Night in Kaldia
──────
“It's a large-scale operation to subjugate a Beastfolk stronghold.”
Graham spread a parchment bearing a red seal across the desk.
It was effectively a requisition order issued to the Mercenary Guild by the knights.
“Thirty Silver Lion Knights will form the spearhead, while the remaining garrison troops and our mercenaries support them as a shield. Reports say the magical beasts’ main base lies deep in the western primeval forest.”
Lucian stared silently at the parchment.
“Silver-ranked mercenaries may choose whether to participate. It isn't compulsory, only voluntary. The reward is a hefty twenty gold coins.”
Twenty gold coins.
For an ordinary mercenary, it was enough money to risk a life for.
But Lucian did not answer at once.
A joint operation.
A battle mixing knights, garrison troops, and mercenaries.
Large-scale battles were not an efficient way to accumulate experience.
He only gained experience from enemies he killed himself, and in a large battle, the number he could kill personally was limited.
More importantly, a joint operation meant following the chain of command. He would not be able to move freely.
“I'll hold off on my decision.”
Graham deliberately pushed up their glasses at Lucian’s dry reply.
“Not a rejection, but a deferral?”
“I'll decide after judging the situation. When does the operation begin?”
“It is scheduled for seven days from now.”
“I'll think about it until then.”
Graham rested their chin on clasped hands and studied Lucian.
“If a Warden-grade warrior who has made a name on this frontier refuses the knights’ operation, it will draw attention. Those noble knight bastards see mercenaries as disposable. Someone with a Warden’s strength who has not been commissioned is nothing but an uncontrollable heretic to them. It would be wise to avoid unnecessary friction.”
It sounded less like a warning than advice.
Lucian nodded and left the office.
Knights. A large-scale joint operation. A Beastfolk main base.
There were too many variables. He lacked too many pieces of information to reach a conclusion immediately.
It would not be too late to decide after first killing the queen of the venomous insect swarm nesting in the southern forest.
* * *
On his way from the guild to the south gate, Lucian needed to replenish supplies before carrying out the request.
Herbs and antidotes.
Protection against poison was essential when facing venomous insects.
He headed for the herbalists’ alley south of the market.
Kaldia’s market spread outward from the central square, naturally dividing into districts by trade.
The east held blacksmiths and weapon shops.
The west held taverns and inns.
The south held herbalists, general stores, and information brokers.
Information brokers.
Small shops without signs or plaques lined the deeper parts of the alley.
They appeared to be general stores or antique shops, but in truth, they bought and sold information.
There was an organization in this world that traded information.
A network called the Information Guild.
It was especially active in frontier cities like Kaldia.
In a region plagued by unending wars and border disputes, information cost more than gold.
Lucian had learned of the Information Guild ten days earlier.
While listening in at a tavern, he had heard one mercenary tell another, “Go see Old Ernst in the southern alley. You'll learn the Beastfolk’s movement routes.”
Afterward, Lucian had observed the southern alley and identified at least three information exchanges disguised as general stores.
The one run by an elderly person named Ernst was the largest.
Since he was buying medicine today, Lucian intended to stop by Ernst’s shop as well.
First, the herbalist.
Three bottles of antidote and one jar of wound-healing ointment. Four silver coins.
After killing the venomous snake, his body had developed a weak resistance to poison, but he did not know whether it would be enough against the venomous insect queen’s poison.
He was not short on money, so he would prepare as thoroughly as possible.
He would not take his money with him when he died, after all.
After buying the medicine, he entered the deeper alley.
Ernst’s shop.
From the outside, it was an antique store.
Dusty shelves displayed old lamps, broken pottery, rusted coins, and the like.
A white-haired elderly proprietor sat dozing behind the inner counter.
When Lucian opened the door and stepped inside, the proprietor opened their eyes.
Their gaze was far too clear for someone who had been asleep.
They had most likely been pretending.
“What are you looking for?”
“Information.”
A faint smile appeared on the proprietor’s lips.
“Looking for information in an antique shop. You're an interesting person.”
“Are you Ernst?”
“That’s right. And you're Lucian, the silver-ranked mercenary who killed a troll alone.”
Lucian was not surprised.
It was only natural for an information broker to know what was happening in the city.
“I want to know the distribution of magical beasts around Kaldia. In particular, the locations and frequency of higher-ranking magical beasts.”
Ernst took a parchment from beneath the counter.
“One gold coin.”
It was expensive.
But considering the value of the information, it was not wasteful.
Knowing where magical beasts were found would make requests more efficient and help him avoid needless danger.
He paid a gold coin and received the parchment.
It was a map of the area around Kaldia, marked with sightings of magical beasts.
A Beastfolk stronghold in the western forest.
Estimated locations of two trolls and three ogres in the southern mountains.
Remnants of an orc unit in the eastern hills.
A report of one Wyvern sighted in the northern plains.
A Wyvern.
Lucian’s eyes lingered there.
Even a low-grade wyvern was a lesser dragon. A flying magical beast.
It was an opponent on an entirely different level from a ground battle.
The current Lucian could not face one.
But someday...
“One more thing,” Lucian said.
“I want to know Kaldia’s power structure.”
Ernst’s eyes gleamed.
“The power structure? What exactly do you mean?”
“What organizations are in this city, and who truly holds power?”
Ernst studied Lucian for a moment.
It was not a question a simple magical-beast hunter would ask.
“Five more silver coins.”
Lucian paid without a word.
Ernst spoke slowly.
“Kaldia’s true power is divided broadly among four groups.”
The proprietor raised fingers one by one.
“First, the lord. Kaldia’s official ruler is Ricardo Baldwin, Margrave of the western frontier of the Arlan Kingdom. But the lord spends most of the time in the royal capital, while the actual administration is handled by an administrator. The name is Seras Ogin. In practical terms, this is Kaldia’s highest authority.”
“Second, the garrison. Military power. The commander is Aaron Graywood, a mid-ranking High Warden knight. However, as garrison troops are continually drafted away, Aaron Graywood’s influence is declining.”
“Third, the Merchant Guild. The true pillar of Kaldia’s economy. Its leader is Marcus Hern. The guild controls most frontier trade and has deep connections to the lord’s administrator as well.”
“Fourth.”
A meaningful smile appeared on Ernst’s lips.
“A force operating in the shadows. An organization called the Thieves’ Guild. It does not officially exist, but it is an underground organization that handles smuggling, stolen goods, black-market trade, and even assassination requests. The leader’s name is unknown. They are only known by the nickname 〈Black Hand〉.”
The Thieves’ Guild. The Black Hand.
Lucian memorized the name.
“And if I were to name a fifth,” Ernst added.
“It would be the Mercenary Guild. The Kaldia Mercenary Guild, run by Guildmaster Graham, is an independent force. It is not entirely subordinate to either the lord or the Merchant Guild. As the garrison’s numbers decline, the Mercenary Guild’s influence is growing.”
Five powers.
The lord’s administrator, the garrison, the Merchant Guild, the Thieves’ Guild, and the Mercenary Guild.
Even a small frontier city held this many tangled forces.
Ernst smiled.
“It would be nice if you could belong nowhere, but as long as you operate in a city, you will become entangled with someone. Especially someone as conspicuous as you. I'm saying this because you don't strike me as naïve enough not to know there is no such thing as neutrality in this world.”
Lucian did not reply.
He left the shop and made his way out of the alley.
As he passed through the southern alley, he watched his surroundings.
He noticed things that had not caught his attention before.
A man lingering before a general store.
He was not a customer. He was watching the area.
He might have been with the Thieves’ Guild.
Two people discreetly exchanging goods in an alley behind a tavern.
Perhaps it was stolen goods. Perhaps information.
The Merchant Guild’s emblem hung outside a shop in the blacksmiths’ alley.
It marked the shop as being under the guild’s management.
Complex interests were woven beneath the city’s surface.
Lucian had no intention of involving himself with any of them.
Involvement led to entanglement, and entanglement created variables.
Variables were danger.
His goal was simple.
Hunt magical beasts, accumulate experience, and grow stronger.
Avoid making unnecessary enemies in the process.
That was all.
However.
That was only Lucian’s position.
Their positions and thoughts would be different.
Especially as Lucian’s reputation rose alongside his strength.
* * *
By the time he returned to his stone dwelling, the sun had already melted into red.
He needed to prepare if he was going to crush the venomous insect swarm in the wetlands at dawn tomorrow.
He pulled tight the leather seams of his Wyvern Light Armor and wiped the invisible impurities from his silver longsword’s blade with oil.
He checked the sound of a dagger being drawn from its sheath dozens of times, then checked the balance of all six throwing daggers one by one.
He strapped antidotes to his waist and secured bandages in his pack.
After finishing his preparations, Lucian sat on a bundle of straw and began mana-control training.
Today’s experiment was combining throwing weapons and mana.
Infusing mana while holding a blade at point-blank range had already become as natural as breathing.
But could mana’s destructive power remain even in a lump of steel that had left his hand and was cutting through the air?
Lucian gripped a throwing dagger and forcibly pushed mana from his dantian into it.
Aura (Hardening).
A cold vibration gathered over the bluish dagger blade.
Whoosh!
He snapped his wrist and threw it toward the wooden board opposite him.
Crunch!
The dagger struck the board with a dull burst.
When he approached to inspect it, he found that it had penetrated far deeper than when he had not loaded it with mana.
The mana embedded in the blade remained as though by inertia even after it left his hand, then exploded into physical destructive force the moment it struck the target.
It worked.
No matter how hard the venomous insect queen’s shell was, this method could pierce an eye from range.
Ten times. Twenty times. Thirty times.
Lucian repeated the throws like a machine.
With every repetition, the timing of mana infusion in the instant the dagger left his fingers grew precise like an animal’s instinct.
An inexplicable talent for killing techniques was synchronizing.
On the thirtieth throw, the dagger planted itself dead center in the crosshair of the wooden board five paces away.
It was the accuracy that an ordinary assassin would need months of bone-grinding effort to attain.
A dreadful synergy between innate talent and the Experience Points accumulated through slaughter.
After finishing his training, Lucian lay down beneath a cold blanket.
Beyond the thick stone walls, he could hear Kaldia’s rotten night breathing.
The clatter of patrol soldiers’ armor, muted shouts from taverns, and the scurrying feet of rats stealthily crossing the roofs.
Lucian quietly closed his eyes.
* * *
Before the chill of dawn had lifted, as the earth was soaked in blood-red light.
He left through the south gate.
The southern primeval forest.
It was the forest where he had first cleared out goblins, but this time, his destination lay far deeper inside.
The wetlands at the heart of the forest, reeking of decay.
Venomous insect swarms loved damp, rotting territory.
He marched for four hours like a machine.
The deeper he went into the forest, the more the canopy of giant trees completely blocked the sky’s light, and the air grew sticky and heavy as a swamp.
With every step, foul moisture seeped from the rotten moss and mud.
Then the smell gradually thickened.
A cloying, sickening stench like rotting corpses.
It was the pheromones of a venomous insect swarm.
Its concentration was on an entirely different level from the low-grade swarm whose nest he had burned before.
A suffocating density.
It meant that the scale of the swarm lurking beneath these wetlands exceeded his expectations.
Lucian erased his footsteps and slipped between the tree trunks like a beast.
Semi-transparent, viscous membranes stretched taut like spiderwebs between the giant trees.
They were territory markers spat out by the venomous insects, as well as a massive vibration-detection device linking the entire nest.
If even a single hair brushed them, the whole underground swarm would pour out like a carpet bombing run.
Lucian stroked the hilt of his silver longsword and began to slip through the gaps in the deadly membranes like a ghost.
Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried