How a Mercenary Handles a Mad Husband and a Mad Request - Chapter 1

Chapter 1: How a Mercenary Protects Their Charge (1)

Mercenaries. Those who failed to become knights but possessed skills on par with them. Those who didn’t place as much value on honor as knights did, and would do anything for money. Thus, they were shunned by society.

“You know, not all imperial knights seem so glamorous. Everyone’s saying the prince leaving the palace this time is basically being abandoned. Could that be why the atmosphere’s like this?”

“Quiet. Most imperial knights are either nobles or not the same kind of commoner, even if they are.”

At Regina’s reproach, Rosie fell silent. But she couldn’t help glancing at the carriage carrying the duke.

Unlike Regina, who had long walked the path of a mercenary as the daughter of ‘Gellen Roffman,’ the king of mercenaries, Rosie was a greenhorn fascinated by everything.

She had been cheerful like a puppy throughout the assignment, so Regina planned to thoroughly train her once they returned to Persona.

No matter how curious the situation, letting one’s guard down like that was forbidden.

‘More than that, how can someone suffering from madness become a lord in the first place? And they’re replacing the understaffed imperial guard with mercenaries?’

Today, a prince afflicted with madness was leaving the imperial palace for Valmen.

He was burdened with the title of Duke Julius and became the watchdog of Valmen, a barren land said to be forsaken by the gods. Rumor had it he was no different from a rabid dog.

‘Is he truly an abandoned prince?’

Persona, the mercenary guild that took on any request. With skills so strong they seemed devoid of mercy, they handled everything from bodyguarding to difficult missions—so long as the payment was sufficient.

But even Regina, the de facto head of Persona, had never guarded the imperial family before—especially not alongside the imperial knights draped in luxurious cloaks over their right shoulders.

For a fleeting moment, Regina found herself absurdly thinking that the grand, ornate carriage looked lonely.

“Everyone, focus! Eyes forward!”

An imperial knight shouted as the formation began to falter. That voice, repeated again and again, added weight to the heavy atmosphere.

‘Normally, I would’ve been more cautious about taking on a request like this.’

But with the guild’s finances worsening, Regina was accepting any job that came her way.

No matter how much she thought it over, the cause was that wretched assailant who had ruined several recent requests. One of them had even been the highest-paying contract they’d ever received. That, and her reckless father, had made matters worse.

As the daughter of Gellen, known as the king of mercenaries, Regina had naturally followed the mercenary path from birth.

She had taken up the sword at age ten and helped expand the Persona guild. Persona was a treasure chest containing her life’s work. So she gave her all to every mission.

“Ambush!”

“Everyone, draw your swords! Assassins!”

“Persona mercenaries, draw your weapons too! Protect the target!”

At Regina’s cry, the members of Persona drew their weapons. Assassins emerged from behind trees, from pre-dug pits—like bats or moles.

“Kugh!”

“Protect the target first!”

Cutting down the assassins who crept toward the carriage, Regina shouted again. Some of the imperial knights who had been fighting the assassins gathered around the carriage at her call.

‘These imperial knights are awfully slow!’

Regina had assumed they were naturally the ones assigned to guard the imperial passenger in the carriage—until they suddenly drew their weapons and attacked it.

“Step aside while I’m still being nice, woman mercenary!”

Regina gritted her teeth as she blocked the knight’s spear. Had she let her guard down, thinking they were loyal knights, the sharp spear would’ve shattered the carriage wall and pierced the tender flesh of the imperial family inside.

“Traitors, are you?”

“Heh, does that even matter now? You mercenaries are all going to die anyway.”

This was why suspicious jobs should never be accepted. Regina shoved aside the flood of regret and smiled at the bold-faced traitors.

“…Are you sure about that?”

She deflected the blocked spear and swiftly slipped into the knight’s chest, driving a dagger precisely into a vital spot. Thud—the large man collapsed.

The traitors’ blades turned toward her, the one who had taken down a giant in a single blow.

“What do you take our Persona for? Don’t insult our pride.”

Regina pointed with her chin.

The Persona mercenaries in combat were like raging bulls—hurling knights aside, slashing through them. Compared to the loyal knights who stood against the traitors, their technique was messy, but their brutality was unmatched.

“Damn it, throw it! Throw that thing!”

Led by one traitor, they began hurling black stones at the carriage. Regina instinctively struck them away with her sword, but a few still struck the carriage.

It was impossible for her alone to block every stone hurled by multiple enemies—like trying to dodge raindrops in a storm.

‘Damn it!’

Boom!

With a massive explosion, the carriage was blown apart.

“Prince Valentin!!”

“Regina!!”

Through the thick smoke, knights and mercenaries each cried out. But the rising smoke and heat swallowed them all without a trace.

***

When was it? It must have been when Regina successfully completed her first request and was embraced by Gellen and Maut, who was like an uncle to her, receiving so much praise her hair got tousled.

Whenever Regina was ill, that memory was the first to come to mind. Perhaps it was because it was around that time she resolved to risk her life to protect the Persona Guild and its mercenaries.

So when she was caught up in the war, and when the damned assailant’s recent attack gravely injured several mercenaries, it weighed heavily on her.

Especially the fact that she couldn’t even land a scratch on the man who injured her members and fled—it haunted her so much, she ground her teeth even in her sleep.

Just like now.

“Get up now.”

Startled once by the hand shaking her, and again by the water droplets falling onto her cheek, Regina opened her eyes. What she saw was a man looking down at her.

Water was dripping from his platinum-blonde hair, soaked through, onto her face.

“Ugh.”

“We rolled down a mountain and into a valley together. Looks like your shoulder bone is cracked.”

As Regina tried to sit up and grabbed her shoulder, the man looked at her indifferently.

Only then did Regina slowly take in her surroundings. She could hear water flowing nearby. It seemed this man had dragged her under a tree.

“Did you… pull me out of the water? Thank you.”

“You were clinging to me and wouldn’t let go. I barely crawled up from the riverbed.”

Now that she thought about it—who was this man?

Regina looked at him as he roughly shook the water from his hair.

His tall stature, dazzling platinum hair, red lips, the smooth bridge of his nose anchoring his face, and the deep eyes above it all—he looked like a proud creation of the gods.

“…Are you Duke Julius, by any chance?”

As she examined the man’s face, Regina recalled the memories she had briefly lost in shock.

The assassins had thrown explosives at the carriage. Amid repeated blasts and smoke, she entered the carriage and shielded the person she was assigned to protect.

She had a protective device that could briefly withstand some impact.

So she held him and endured the explosion, and the last thing she remembered was being blown away by the shock and tumbling down a cliff.

“Yes. Woman mercenary.”

Woman mercenary. Regina didn’t like that label. It usually carried disdain, as if saying, ‘a woman doing mercenary work.’

There was a strange sense of familiarity and hostility in his tone, but he was still her charge. Regina stood and slowly surveyed the area.

“If we follow the river, we should be able to meet up with the others. Let’s get moving.”

“With that shoulder?”

“Ah, it’s not cracked—it’s dislocated.”

“Then it’ll hurt every time you walk.”

“I’ll manage.”

Regina tore a piece of her clothing and bit down on it. She had a rough understanding of how to reset a bone the mercenary way—brutal and painful. But loud noises might attract beasts or the assassins who could still be searching for them.

“Ugh.”

Suppressing her scream as much as possible, she forced the dislocated shoulder back in. It was only a temporary fix, but enough to last until she reunited with her comrades. Spitting out the torn cloth, she wiped the cold sweat from her forehead.

‘His eye color is quite unique.’

Then, facing Valentin who looked at her with amethyst-like violet eyes, she asked, “Did that disgust you?”

The prince suffering from madness. Regina wanted to avoid upsetting him as much as possible. He might look fine now, but it could just be appearances.

Valentin stared at her in silence for a long time, then shook his head. As his hair dried, his shaggy bangs gradually fell over his face.

“No, not particularly. More than that, you look like you’re wondering when I’ll go insane, or if I’m truly mad.”

“…I am currently the only one assigned to protect you, Your Grace. I need to know for reference, so please don’t be offended.”

Following her lead, Valentin stood and pulled out an empty glass vial from his chest and shook it.

“I’ve taken my medicine, so I’ll be fine for a while.”

So it was something manageable with medication. Relieved, Regina started walking. Waiting for rescue would be pointless—they were better off following the river downstream. There was no guarantee the assassins would stop at just one attempt.

‘We need to regroup first.’

It wasn’t long before Regina noticed something odd about the footsteps behind her. In her haste, she had forgotten the report that her charge limped on his left leg.

Leaning against a tree trunk as he followed, Valentin finally spoke when she looked back.

“Let’s walk a little slower.”

Feeling awkward, Regina searched for something he could use as a cane. But there wasn’t a sturdy enough branch to support his tall, broad-shouldered frame.

‘Come to think of it, he felt pretty solid when I was holding him. Even if he limps, he must keep up his training. That couldn’t have been easy.’

Regina handed him her sheathed sword from her hip. She still had a small dagger tucked in her clothes, so it wouldn’t be a problem to lend him her main weapon for now.

“Take this.”

“You’re giving me your sword?”

“To lean on.”

“What if I go mad and start swinging it around? Medicine isn’t foolproof.”

“Then I’ll subdue you. I trust you wouldn’t accuse me of treason for that. I did tumble off a cliff and fall into a river while saving Your Grace.”

Handing the sword over without a second thought, Regina started walking again. Before she realized it, her pace had slowed.