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Chapter 49 : Dragon Horde Subjugation Request

“Then, with this, the mercenary test is over! Everyone, disperse!! There are a lot of pending requests right now, so hurry up and take care of them!!”

After Elia’s test ended, the mercenary test finally came to a close once all the remaining newcomers had finished their tests as well.

At that declaration of completion, the mercenaries murmured among themselves as they left the clearing.

And Allen, seeing Elia about to leave without hesitation, hurriedly got up from his seat and approached her.

“Uh… W-Wait a minute!”

“Hmm?”

Fortunately, she didn’t seem to intend to completely ignore him, as she stopped walking and turned around when Allen called out to her.

Then, with the words he had rehearsed countless times in his mind until the test ended, Allen extended his hand toward her.

“You probably heard earlier, but my name is Allen Jake. I’m also a newcomer who took the test today, and I was really impressed by your strength. So, if you’re okay with it, I’d like to form a party with you. What do you think?”

Allen proposed forming a party with Elia, emphasizing their common ground as fellow test takers and praising her strength.

Proposing a party immediately after the mercenary test in the clearing was considered an unspoken breach of etiquette among mercenaries, so he held back for now.

However, the moment they stepped back into the mercenary guild, it was obvious that countless mercenaries would swarm around Elia.

That’s why Allen wanted to recruit her as a companion before others could take her into their parties.

Someone as strong as her would undoubtedly have a lot to teach him, and having her around would be incredibly beneficial.

However, Allen’s outstretched hand, along with his proposal, could only grasp empty air.

“…Sorry, but I don’t plan on forming a party with anyone. I appreciate the offer, though.”

“Huh? You don’t plan on forming a party…?”

For a newcomer, forming a party was standard practice. No, it was almost essential.

After all, new mercenaries didn’t have proper connections or anything of the sort.

But despite being strong, she had no intention of forming a party?

Allen unconsciously frowned at her words, which sounded a bit arrogant, but Elia didn’t seem to care at all and simply turned away, beginning to walk off again.

And as she walked.

She suddenly stopped, slightly turned her head, and said a few words.

“Hmm… You weren’t bad either, so you’ll probably become a Gold Badge mercenary soon. If that happens, maybe we’ll end up taking on a request together someday.”

“What do you mean…?”

“It’s nothing… Never mind. Well then, I’m really going now.”

Words whose meaning he couldn’t quite grasp.

They sounded like praise, but also like a cold rejection with a hint of consolation.

Leaving behind those cryptic words, Elia resumed walking and entered the mercenary guild.

“…What on earth was that supposed to mean?”

No matter how much he thought about it, he couldn’t figure out her intent.

And it wasn’t until a few months later that Allen would come to understand, at least a little, what she had meant.

A few months later, when a huge incident would break out.

“Whew, the breeze feels nice. Is it because summer is coming soon?”

“Yeah, the weather is just right—cool and pleasant.”

A park near the mercenary guild.

After sending Elia the location during the mercenary test, we were sitting on the grass, waiting for her to come out.

As I gently patted Ruina’s head while she buried her face in my neck and occasionally moved her lips, a cool spring breeze brushed past us.

A breeze carrying sunlight, as if foreshadowing the arrival of summer, tickled my ears in just the right way.

Whooosh—

How long had we been waiting for Elia in that breeze?

Suddenly, in the distance, a familiar figure with strikingly white hair appeared—Elia.

Ruina and I straightened our postures at almost the exact same time.

“Oh, Elia! You’re here!”

“Welcome, Elia~”

Since the park was relatively empty, I had taken off my robe.

It wasn’t difficult for Elia to spot us, and she started walking toward us.

But instead of just walking, she gradually began to run, and—wait, why was she speeding up…?

Thud!!

“Dad!!!”

“Ugh?!”

Elia, running at full speed, lunged straight at me and immediately raised her hands—then started smacking my back.

Thwack! Thwack! Thwack—!!!

Instead of a slap, it was the sound of fists hitting my back.

She wasn’t using her full strength, so it wasn’t unbearably painful, but each hit knocked the wind out of me.

“Ugh! Ack! E-Elia, Daddy’s sorry, so please calm d—urk!”

“Because of you! I can’t live in peace!!”

A one-sided beating I couldn’t even stop—because, well, I did kind of deserve it.

I was the one getting hit, but Ruina, watching from the side, just smiled brightly, as if she were witnessing a happy family moment.

Even though she had agreed to this plan too, she was now acting like a bystander.

‘…This is unfair.’

But if I brought up Ruina’s involvement, I had a feeling the beating would only get worse, so I kept my mouth shut.

And so, after taking the hits for about a minute, Elia finally stopped.

“Hah… I was originally just going to scold you a little.”

“But…?”

“But coming out of the mercenary guild, I got so mad because of all the mercenaries swarming around me like flies! I mean, just because I said that one thing, does it make sense for you and Uncle Martin to plot this whole scheme?!”

“Ahem… But still, if you can become a Gold Badge mercenary right away, that’s good for you too, isn’t it?”

“W-Well, that’s true, but…”

At my words, Elia hesitated and turned her head awkwardly, as if admitting I wasn’t completely wrong.

Then, as if to offer some belated comfort, she gently rubbed my back where she had been hitting me.

“Jeez, just don’t do something like this again without telling me first.”

“Ahaha… Alright, I promise, my daughter.”

I was definitely getting beaten up painfully just a moment ago, but with a single gentle touch, it all feels like it’s gone.

So when I was secretly holding a faint smile, Elia opened her mouth again and spoke.

“Come to think of it, when I was coming out, one of the staff members followed me, saying they had a request for Dad.”

“A request? For me?”

Elia said that and pointed to a guild staff member standing awkwardly in the front of the park, looking this way.

Following her finger, I turned my gaze and met eyes with the staff member, who then belatedly put on a business smile.

And as if they had been watching our whole skit just now, the staff member, who had been standing there awkwardly, quickly rushed toward me with small, hurried steps.

“E-excuse me for disturbing your rest! The thing is, today, the Tower Lord placed a designated request for you, Sir Kael. Here, this is the request form that a mage from the tower personally delivered earlier.”

“The Tower Lord, you say?”

Tap.

After approaching me and saying that, the staff member immediately handed over the request form they were holding.

Tilting my head in curiosity, I took the request form that the staff member handed me.

If it’s the Tower Lord, then surely it refers to Nella Oracle, my disciple, and the festival host who had even once proposed to Ruina.

There had been no contact until now, so I couldn’t help but feel curious about why that name suddenly appeared.

If that person had placed a designated request for me, then what could the content possibly be?

With that curiosity, I started reading the request form given to me by the staff member.

“Let’s see… Subjugation of the dragon horde migrating south from the northern continent…?”

“A dragon, you say?”

“…A dragon?”

The request form was written concisely and simply.

However, its content was anything but simple, and after hearing my words, both Ruina and Elia each voiced their surprise.

A dragon—what kind of creature was that?

A life form with extreme resistance to magic, often called the nemesis of mages, and one that could only be taken down with physical force.

However, a dragon’s scales, which were impervious to magic, were so hard that even the strongest sword aura could barely leave a scratch.

Only warriors skilled in sword energy could even hope to face a dragon.

And yet, the request was not to take down just one dragon but an entire horde of them.

“They probably need dragon materials, but now I understand why they sent this designated request to me.”

And then, I realized the reason why Nella had sent me this request directly.

“Because the only person who can take down a whole horde of dragons while keeping them intact is Kael?”

“Exactly. That’s probably the reason.”

I nodded in agreement with Ruina, who seemed to have guessed Nella’s reasoning as well.

Every single part of a dragon’s corpse was an extremely valuable magic material.

That’s why Nella would want the dragons to be captured with as little damage as possible.

And in this continent, there were very few individuals who could take down an entire dragon horde without inflicting major injuries.

However, most of those experts were too busy with other matters, and requesting them would come with a lot of hassle.

So, upon hearing that I was currently working as a mercenary, Nella must have decided to send the designated request to me.

“‘P.S. I will visit the kingdom myself in two days and pay the reward upfront.’ Huh? Since when does she move around personally?”

Seeing the last part of the request, a postscript, I couldn’t help but voice my surprise.

Normally, she would just send someone else, claiming she was too busy with magic research.

It felt as surprising as seeing a shut-in suddenly decide to attend a festival.

But more than that minor shock, my mind was focused on this request.

More specifically, I glanced between the newly appointed Gold-ranked mercenary, Elia, and the request form, then turned to Elia, who was still in shock from the mention of dragons.

“Elia, do you want to handle this request?”

“…What?!”

Elia flinched in shock and took a moment before responding in disbelief.

Her gaze screamed, “What kind of nonsense are you talking about?” but I wasn’t joking.

“If it’s my daughter… this should be a manageable task, right?”

The subjugation of a dragon horde.

For Elia, who was the first in history to achieve Gold-ranked mercenary status in her exam, wasn’t this the most fitting request?

As a first mercenary mission, it wasn’t a bad choice, so I asked her again.

“What do you think, Elia? Want to give it a try?”

Because I truly believed that Elia could handle this mission.