Ch.2A-Rank Request Form

# 1.

The day of Nahan, the leader of the D-rank mercenary group Black Wolf, was more peaceful than one might expect.

First thing in the morning.

“…Finally finished.”

Recycling.

After emptying the horrific trash bins, team members who had gone out for dawn training returned.

“Leader!!”

“Fin—ished.”

Thinking about the maggots and stench that had infested the trash bins made me want to smack them, but…

“Praise me, Leader!”

“Await—ing.”

Seeing the idiotic, bright faces of my members, my anger completely dissipated.

Love them or hate them, I’d have to stick with them until we prevented 12 bad endings, so I nodded while serving them food.

“…Good job.”

“Kyaa! See that, Hanryang!? The leader praised only me!?”

“Objection. It was for—me.”

Look at that, they’re so stupidly happy over such a casually given compliment.

Of course, after I toss out praise like that…

“Oh my? You should covet what’s worth coveting. Should we re-rank ourselves while we’re at it?”

“Luna. Easy—peasy.”

“You really!!”

They immediately start a meaningless fight, so I spoke up, my shoulders feeling heavy.

“Both of you, stop and sit down.”

“Yes sir.”

“—Sir.”

That’s right, good listeners.

Anyway, after this meaningless praise followed by their squabbling and my mediation, around the time breakfast begins, she comes down from the second floor.

“So noisy this early in the morning.”

Her voice is infinitely loving, yet somehow chilling due to the atmosphere.

Tap.

Finally descending the last step, the woman smiled as she looked at the dining table.

“The leader is right here. How dare you.”

Snow-white silver hair that shimmers like starlight.

Golden eyes that sparkle like treasures.

A crimson longsword hanging on her back.

‘Black Wolf’s Vice-Captain Lactea.’

Even after being possessed for a month, I still wasn’t used to her outstanding beauty.

Anyway, her coming down was a signal that she intended to scold the members, so I pulled out another chair and quickly added:

“I don’t mind, come sit down.”

“Yes, Leader.”

Unlike the other members, Lactea immediately did whatever I said, and with her arrival, the Black Wolf mercenary group’s meal began.

The meal was just thin soup with a bit of meat and hard bread crusts, but…

“Wow, Leader really is such a good cook!?”

“Agree—sir.”

Luna and Hanryang always wolfed it down like they hadn’t eaten for days, and even the perpetually expressionless Lactea raised her eyebrows slightly at every meal.

“Leader. How exactly do you make this?”

“I told you. Meat first, then hard vegetables, then soft vegetables—grill and boil in that order. Order is important in everything.”

If you take things step by step and invest time, there’s nothing you can’t accomplish.

Just like how I, once an ordinary 25-year-old Korean man who completed his military service, am now living safely despite suddenly being possessed as a mercenary leader.

However, Lactea still seemed puzzled as she carefully sipped the soup and asked:

“But when I cooked using your method, it didn’t taste like this.”

“That’s the expected result, Lactea. You just followed my words literally.”

She had grilled the meat, hard vegetables, and soft vegetables in order by throwing them into the campfire, then put the entire campfire into the pot to boil.

“…Urgh.”

“Leader?”

“Urgh-wow, try this too, Lactea.”

“Ah, thank you.”

The memory of that taste made me gag, but I skillfully covered it up and asked:

“By the way, is that request from Ms. Red still pending?”

Red.

The person in charge of the Babylonia branch of the Mercenary Union.

-Wow, the request form is orange?

-Because it’s an A-rank request?

-Why the hell are you giving it to us?

-Oh, it’s fine. It’s nothing much. Just assassinate one cult leader and come back. Oh, and be careful, most of them are B-rank.

She was the crazy woman who handed an A-rank request to our D-rank mercenary group.

-Ha! Am I crazy!!

-…Strange. Are you really Nahan?

-How could I refuse such a precious request? Give it here. Black Wolf is on it.

She seemed to have a personal connection with the Black Wolf mercenary group, so I accepted to avoid revealing I was possessed, but…

“Maybe it’s better to decline after all?”

Flinch.

As soon as my question ended, all three members stopped eating and looked up.

“W-well…”

“Luna. Shut—up.”

The other two members besides Lactea looked at her nervously, and after maintaining silence for a moment, Lactea slowly bowed her head.

“I apologize, Leader.”

“Huh?”

“I should have handled it earlier so you wouldn’t have to worry. I’m sorry for causing you concern.”

“Ah.”

I finally understood.

‘She’s apologizing for not declining the request before I had to mention it.’

Indeed, it wouldn’t look good if I, the Black Wolf leader, went personally to say “We’re too incompetent to take this job.”

Since it wasn’t really Lactea’s fault, I smiled and patted her bowed shoulder.

“It’s fine, just handle it well.”

But she, and the other members, remained silent as she looked at me and asked:

“Leader. Should we go this time too?”

“Confident—sir.”

These kids.

They’re so eager for this simple mission of just returning the request form.

‘But since the perceptive Ms. Red is involved in this matter…’

It would be better to send the reliable Lactea rather than the foolish Luna and Hanryang.

Having made my decision, I turned my gaze away from the two and whispered to Lactea:

“Don’t get hurt, and come back safely.”

And the next moment.

“…Yes, Leader.”

Lactea smiled.

“I’ll be back soon.”

It was the most brilliant and beautiful smile she had ever shown me.

# 2.

A dark underground chamber.

Only a few candles illuminated the place, but there were at least a hundred people involved.

The fortunate thing was that the followers who might become hostages hadn’t gathered yet.

Of course, even if there were hostages,

“…Just need to clear out these insignificant beings—such a simple task, yet the request form is crimson.”

It wouldn’t matter to the White Sword Ghost, Babylonia Empire’s specially wanted criminal.

“The Empire struggles with such easy tasks, making me think I should just kill the Emperor and be done with it.”

Click.

The White Sword Ghost detached the sword from her back and attached it to her waist.

“But don’t worry. You asked me to wait, so I’ll wait.”

Tap, tap, tap.

“By the Leader’s side, forever.”

The sound of footsteps echoed through the cave. At the entrance to the cult leader’s chamber, one of the two guards on duty, the junior one, frowned and muttered:

“…Senior, isn’t that a woman?”

“Where, where, you bastard!!”

“T-there, at the entrance.”

“Wow… Hey, don’t report this. I’ll handle it myself.”

The senior guard, whose eyes had gone wild at the silhouette of what was clearly a beauty even in the darkness, strode forward.

‘She seems like a follower. Before handing her over to the cult leader, maybe I can have some fun? If I can just persuade that unnecessarily honest junior somehow…’

In any case, he was now approaching the woman, and raised his hand with a swagger.

“Hey, are you lost? I can—”

SLASH!

“—Huh?”

The senior’s vision spun and suddenly began to lower.

Even in his confused state, he clearly saw the intensely white aura and the red gleam flickering beneath it.

“The request was to assassinate the cult leader, right?”

“……”

“Puhah! Sorry for asking after killing you. But you know I wasn’t expecting an answer.”

The man finally realized.

‘…This is the end.’

Not just for me, but…

“But Red is quite annoying. Even if it’s a cover, she’s too disrespectful to the Leader.”

For everyone involved.

Thud.

With that final thought, his horizontally severed head fell to the ground.

“Since there won’t be any witnesses anyway, I can just deny everything if needed.”

BANG!

Using that as a signal, the White Sword Ghost swept through the entire place in just tens of seconds.

“Cult leader?”

“P-please, huff… s-spare my…”

“Oh, you’re still alive. That’s good. Where do you throw away garbage here?”

“…? O-over there.”

“Thank you. I’ll clean up thoroughly before I leave.”

She completed even the recycling perfectly.

# 3.

It had been an hour since Lactea departed.

“Luna’s taking a nap, and Hanryang went to the cave to meditate… So I have about three hours? This is perfect timing.”

After checking my surroundings once more, I quietly opened the main quest window.

─『Main Quest』─

◆ Simply Survive.

: Prevent all bad endings and save the <Hero> and the <Emperor>.

◆Number of Bad Endings Prevented.

: So far… [3 / 15]

◆Reward

: Return to original world.

The status window still emitted a pale light with no significant changes.

Today, like any other day, I spent my time waiting for another bad ending to be prevented, but unfortunately, there was no particular harvest.

“Come to think of it, three have accumulated, right?”

After confirming the only change in <Number of Bad Endings Prevented>, I opened the information window.

【At the request of the Savior – <Nahan>, information about this person will be viewed!】

【Name: Nahan】

-Alias: Incompetent Mercenary Leader (Temporary)

-Rank: C-rank Mercenary (Temporary)

-Information: A man sold to the underworld by his poor parents when he was young. [Somehow] he struggled and persevered to reach his current position as the leader of the D-rank mercenary group – <Black Wolf>.

【Number of bad endings needed to be prevented for next information viewing… [3/3]. (Condition met!).】

While Luna and Hanryang were doing their dawn training, some new window had appeared, but…

-Damn it, what crazy bastard spat half-chewed meat into the trash bin… Urgh!! Is recycling that difficult?

I was so distracted by the terrible state of the trash bin that I skipped it without realizing.

Fortunately, this world’s system windows responded if the intent was clear even without exact commands, so after thinking for a moment, I opened my mouth, but…

“Umm… <Information Re-view>?”

【User – <Nahan>’s request is denied.】

【To re-view this information, a total of <5> prevented bad endings are required.】

Unfortunately, I was rejected.

‘Some information seems to have time limits.’

It’s disappointing, but at least I learned something new about the system.

“Ah, do I just touch it?”

With no other choice, I reached out to unlock only the information in my info window.

Tap.

As expected, the touch worked, and…

【<New Information> and <Possessed Skills> for <Nahan> will be unlocked!】

【Progress: …1%】

With a faint light, the letters on the pale system window began to change.

“This will take a while.”

Well, it doesn’t matter much.

I have more than enough time anyway.

“So, what should I do while waiting for the next year?”

A C-rank mercenary who dislikes fighting gets pretty bored.

As I was idling and planning my future slow healing life…

BANG!

The door of the <Black Wolf Mercenary Group>’s hideout was roughly opened as someone burst in.

“Leader, have you finally lost your mind!?”

“Excuse me?”

Rose-pink hair,

Ruby-like eyes,

Slightly tanned clean skin.

“I asked you to just kill the bishop, but how could you grind down the entire cult!?”

“Me?”

Her name was Ruby Red.

She was the branch manager of the Babylonia branch of the Mercenary Union.

…But.

“Now all the corrupt nobles’ funding sources are cut off because of you, Leader!!”

Why is she calling me Leader?

.

.

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【<Black Wolf Mercenary Group>】

-Alias: Incompetent Mercenary Group (Temporary), Garbage Collection (Temporary), Mercenary Kindergarten (Temporary)

-Rank: D (Temporary)

-Members

◆Leader: <Nahan – ???>

◆Vice-Captain: <Lactea – White Sword Ghost>

◆No1. <???>

◆No2. <???>

◆No3. <Hanryang – Tal>

◆No4. <Luna – Persona>

◆No5. <???>

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◆No6. <Ruby Red – ???> (New!)