Chapter 43
Just as Kain had said, the frequency of monster appearances increased the further they went inland.
And the monsters that appeared also became a bit more troublesome or stronger.
"Just block what's coming out of the left swamp properly! I'll take the front!"
"Yes, leader!"
However, as the mercenaries also fought carefully, centered around their leader, they maintained a solid formation and took down the monsters without being helplessly defeated by poisonous toads like before.
In particular, the experienced mercenary leader took charge of the front lines, doing the work of two or three men on his own.
"Haaah!"
Thwack!
The large battle-axe, swung with all his might and imbued with mana, cleaved the mud lizard's head in two.
"Kweck...!"
The brown lizard, as big as a human, died without even letting out a proper scream.
And just as the mercenary leader was about to pull the axe blade out of its skull.
"Master Kain! The swamp moths!"
"I see them."
Kain's low chant was uttered towards the swarm of swamp moths rushing at the leader.
"Fire Wall."
Whoosh.
A vivid wall of fire rose in front of the mercenary leader.
"Transformation."
The wall of fire bent as if someone had grabbed the end and curved it, perfectly surrounding and protecting the mercenary leader's flanks as well.
The swamp moths, which were rushing in from multiple directions, didn't even slow down as they charged towards the fire wall.
Swish, swish, swish.
Not a single one passed through, turning to ashes and scattering.
"Nice!"
"Those annoying things. Serve them right!"
The mercenaries cheered as they watched dozens of swamp moths, which would stick to them, bite their skin with tiny teeth, and irritate their eyes and throats with powder emitted from their wings, get wiped out cleanly.
But Kain, unconcerned, immediately prepared the next spell.
"Fireball. Scatter."
A large fireball that appeared in the air instantly split and scattered into dozens of smaller fireballs with Kain's additional calculations.
They accurately intercepted and knocked down the swamp moths that were hovering above the surrounding mercenaries' heads.
"That Kain guy is really insane when it comes to accuracy."
"Don't just stand there admiring him; hurry up and help over there! Fire Needle!"
"I was going to do that anyway! Fireball!"
The disciples also used fire magic to clear away the swamp moths so that the mercenaries in their respective directions could focus on hunting the mud lizards.
“You lizard brat are no match for me one-on-one!"
"Haaah!"
Thwack. Slice.
With the pests gone, the mud lizards were cut down one by one by the mercenaries' mana-imbued weapons.
Mud lizards, with their tough hides and bodies soaked in the humid mud, were resistant to fire magic, so the mercenaries hunted them with blades infused with condensed mana.
Swamp moths, which flew through the air and were numerous, making it cumbersome to cut them down individually, were hunted with fire magic.
It was the most efficient division of labor in this situation.
"Last one! Uwaaa!"
"Kuluk..."
With the mercenaries and mages working in perfect sync, the battle was cleanly concluded without any significant casualties.
"Hoo... Good work, everyone."
"Good work, leader."
"You guys too. It'll be tough, but let's process them and then rest. We only need the tails and front claws."
"Yes, sir!"
However, unfortunately, there wasn't much to gain from this battle.
Swamp moths didn't have much to salvage in the first place, and since they had been thoroughly burned by fire magic, there was even less.
Mud lizards had hides that were damp and soaked in foul-smelling mud, making their value as merchandise very low.
Their teeth weren't durable due to the characteristics of their habitat, so all that was worth taking were their tails and front claws.
The tail, thanks to its unique regenerative ability, was worth collecting as research material for magic towers or magic clan research facilities.
"Kain, but what about in cases like this? The swamp moths we helped take down don't have anything to salvage..."
Edward, who had diligently burned the swamp moths, looked at the mercenaries processing the lizards with a slightly dejected expression.
"Don't worry. Since we divided the roles through mutual agreement, you'll still get your share based on your contribution."
"How do you decide on that contribution...?"
"I'll have to negotiate with them to decide."
"Oh, negotiate..."
Edward repeated softly, as if the word felt out of place coming from Kain.
"However, it would be best to leave the processing entirely to them. Because..."
"Ugh, Kain! I can't cut this at all with my sword?"
"......"
Kain sighed softly as Bolio, who had gone to cut off the tail of a small mud lizard he had accidentally caught with a Fire Arrow earlier, shouted.
"Don't waste your strength. Look at those mercenaries. They're using mana when they cut too."
As Kain said, when they looked at the mercenaries, they weren't using the knives they typically used for processing, but were instead infusing their combat swords with mana and hacking off the tails like they were chopping firewood.
"Oh, right."
"Since the hides aren't useful anyway, they're just cutting them off whole without needing to be careful."
As the disciples nodded in understanding, Kain said,
"Then I'll go negotiate the contribution share with them, so you guys can rest a bit..."
As he was speaking, Kain seemed to notice something, then slightly frowned and walked towards the mercenaries.
"......What is it?"
"Don't know. Looks like something else displeases him."
Bolio, who had given up on cutting the tail, shrugged.
Behind the mercenary Kain was approaching, a fallen mud lizard lay on the ground.
"Kuluk..."
Surprisingly, the lizard was still breathing.
The lizard, as if exhausted and having given up on everything, rested its chin on the ground, slowly blinking its eyes and exhaling.
The mercenary was pointing at the lizard at his feet and saying something to the leader.
"Leader. This one isn't dead yet. How about we just keep it alive and harvest its tail a few more times? We didn't get much loot anyway; we should at least take this."
In the case of lizard-type monsters, their tails have excellent regenerative abilities and will fully grow back and recover within a few days as long as they are alive.
Of course, unless they were provided with an environment with incredibly rich magic, they would eventually stop regenerating after a few times in such an injured state...
Still, up to those few times, they would grow back cleanly, so if they kept it alive and harvested the tail as the mercenary said, they could maximize their financial gain.
"Oh ho. There was one still alive. Yeah, keeping one or two in the remaining space on the cargo wagon and waiting isn't a bad idea."
The mercenary leader's face brightened at the thought of earning more money.
"Are there any others besides this one?"
"No, sir. We were too busy with the swamp moths, and they weren't weak enough for us to fight while controlling our strength. This one seems to have survived by chance because its hide is so tough."
"Alright. Then just cut off the tail and put it in the cargo hold..."
And the moment the mercenary leader gave his final approval.
"Flame Spear."
A blazing spear of fire flew towards them.
"Uwaaagh!"
The mercenary screamed in surprise at the same time as.
Whoosh.
The flame spear struck the lizard at the mercenary's feet, and the lizard died without even having a chance to scream.
"Wh-what..."
The mercenary, who had frozen thinking it was coming for him, gasped for breath.
"Master Kain...?"
The mercenary leader looked at Kain walking towards them.
"What was that just now...?"
"We haven't even reached the center of the swamp yet. Keeping that thing alive in a situation where many stronger monsters might appear in the future is just creating unnecessary variables."
"But..."
"If, by any chance, during a battle, in a situation where we can't supervise it, that thing pretends to be weak and then escapes to ambush someone from behind, can you take responsibility for that?"
"......"
Kain continued speaking with his usual perfect blank expression.
"Don't do unnecessary things and just finish processing what's there and load it up."
Kain said that and turned to leave again, but stopped as if he had remembered something.
"Ah, and. For this battle's share distribution, we'll take 60%."
"......?!"
"Your subordinate just admitted it himself. He said they were too busy with the swamp moths, and the battle was intense, so that thing only survived by chance. If we hadn't been here, it wouldn't have just survived by chance."
"......"
"Speak up if you have any complaints. I'll listen."
When the mercenary leader didn't object, Kain turned back towards the disciples.
Having listened intently to the conversation, the disciples immediately gathered in front of Kain.
Edward and Fohn, in particular, looked very pleased.
"Kain! Good job! I was wondering why those guys were keeping a dying lizard alive, and it was for something like that."
"Ah, even though it's a monster, leaving something that's already dying in such pain and using it like that is a bit... Well, anyway, we and the monsters are enemies, so killing them can't be helped..."
Edward and Fohn, who had been diligently hunting the monsters, seemed to feel pity when they saw the lizard that had completely lost its will to fight and was just waiting for death.
"It's none of my business how you kill monsters, but seeing that in front of me is a bit unsettling."
"Yeah, keeping something like that in the cargo hold would be a bit creepy."
Bolio and Anias' opinions also pointed in a similar direction for the first time.
"See? Kain does have a warm side even though he looks like that!"
Edward grinned and reached out to put his arm around Kain's shoulder.
Kain immediately moved his head to the side, dodging him.
"...You seem to be mistaken about something. As I said, the reason I killed the lizard was to prevent unnecessary variables. There's no other reason."
"Aww, you're doing it again!"
"Doing what again? I don't recall saying those exact words in the past."
"That's not it! What I mean is..."
While Kain and Edward were exchanging words like that.
The mercenaries, who had instantly lost their future lizard tails and the associated payout, blankly stared at their backs.
"......"
"...Leader. He was quiet for a while, so why is he suddenly acting like that again? There's no way he actually felt sorry for the lizard, right?"
The mercenary shuddered, recalling Kain's chillingly cold expression.
That face showing pity for something? Get real.
"And frankly, taking 60% is too much. They keep saying 'what if they weren't here,' but conversely, if only their disciples had fought without us, the damage would have been much greater, wouldn't it?"
He couldn't bring himself to say it loudly and just grumbled under his breath.
“Leader, aren't you angry? He said he'd listen if we had any complaints, so even now..."
"Henry, look behind you."
"Yes?"
The mercenary, who had been huffing and puffing, turned around to look at the spot where the lizard had been, at the words of the leader who had been silently calm since earlier.
And he soon shut his mouth.
"......"
There, where the lizard had been, was a sand pit created by Kain's Flame Spear, which had not only blown away the lizard's upper body but had also completely evaporated a nearby swamp puddle.
So perfectly had the moisture evaporated that one might have thought they could scoop it up right away and make an hourglass.
'That was a Flame Spear cast almost instantly, without gathering mana or doing additional calculations.'
In other words, if Kain had wanted to, taking down one or two mud lizards with a single spell was no big deal for him.
"T-then why didn't he catch the lizards earlier...?"
"He was giving us a chance. To see if we could handle it perfectly when the roles were divided."
"Ah."
Only then did he realize what a foolish mistake he had made.
He should have made sure they were all dead, but instead, he had confessed that one had survived by chance.
The leader patted the frozen mercenary's shoulder and said,
"Stop your whining and let's finish processing. If you count the share for processing everything, it's not that much of a loss."
"......Understood."
And a little while later.
"Huh? Kain! Wait a minute. How did you cut the tail with that dagger?!"
"Don't tell me you even know how to imbue mana into weapons?"
They realized they had to hurry up with the processing too.
"This is driving me crazy, seriously."
