The Warrior Marigold. (1)

1.

“Miss, how long are you going to sleep!”

Marigold woke up, her eyelids fluttering.

She could feel the winged Fairy ‘Pina’ pulling at her cheeks.

The smell of hay permeated her nose. It was an old Stable.

“It’s the day we’re supposed to go up to the Imperial Capital, how can you be sleeping so soundly here? At this rate, we’ll miss the train!”

“Ugh, it’s tomorrow anyway. There’s still a day left… Aaaagh.”

Pina pulled at her cheeks again.

“There’s only a day left, only a day! If we’re late, we’ll have to take a ship instead of the train.”

“Ugh, I know. Stop yelling.”

“You haven’t forgotten that we only borrowed the Stable until this morning, have you?”

“Ah!”

Marigold shot up from the pile of hay. She saw the horse next to her snorting.

There was water she had received the night before at her head.

Sipping it quickly and pushing the horse away, Marigold quickly washed her face. As the sleepiness faded, the memories of last night came back to her.

“I had that strange dream again.”

“A dream?”

“Yeah.”

Dream.

No.

“Was it really a dream?”

“They say you dream a lot when you’re growing up.”

Marigold looked at her face reflected in the surface of the water bowl, recalling that familiar dream.

There were numerous paintings hanging in a place that looked like a museum where time had stopped. Marigold had already seen the scene several times.

[Album of Memories]

-1. What kind of life is this, Marigold?

-2. A victim of war, Marigold.

-3. So many ways to die.

-4. Are you the owner of the restaurant? Marigold.

.

.

.

-15. The brave maid Marigold.

-16. Marigold, falsely accused.

-17. Poor fallen Miss Marigold.

-18. Overwork is bad for your health, Marigold.

-19. Marriage to the young noble ‘Lancel Dante.’

Paintings of one woman, whether young or old. Marigold instinctively knew that they were all her.

Below the paintings, explanations she couldn’t understand continued.

==========

—Ending 18. Overwork is bad for your health, Marigold.

—You increased your part-time jobs from three to four to overcome poverty. But you didn’t realize that nothing is more precious than your health. Your wish to sleep to your heart’s content was finally fulfilled.

==========

Nightmare.

Marigold considered it a nightmare.

What else could it be but a nightmare, to face the ‘end of Marigold’ that ended in death, loneliness, or a life of insignificance?

But there was just one thing.

Something that bothered her.

The painting hanging at the very end.

—Marriage to the young noble ‘Lancel Dante.’

“Lancel Dante.”

Marigold quietly repeated the name she had seen in her dream.

For some reason, a stuffy feeling constricted her from deep within her chest.

It was a feeling she was experiencing for the first time.

“Miss, why are you crying? Miss? D-Did I say something too harsh? I’ll apologize, I’ll apologize!”

“No, it’s not Pina’s fault…”

Marigold wiped away her tears.

Imprinting the name Lancel Dante deep in her heart.

1.

“The Imperial Capital is a microcosm of the continent. All power ultimately gathers here, clumping together, competing, and clashing as they divide their territories.”

One of the reasons Lancel had distanced himself from the Imperial Capital Rodniss was the evaluation of countless people who expressed it.

Lancel’s family, starting with himself, shuddered at the name Rodniss, considering it more than just a common phenomenon where people from the provinces maliciously portrayed the people of the capital, like saying that you would get your nose cut off if you went to Hanyang.

“Rodniss is a place where the more greedy and petty nobles are, the better they live. Just thinking about what happened to me there still makes me shudder. Those bastards are like rags that fell into a dung pit in a barn.”

Lancel’s mother, Nirbia Dante, recalled the place every time she had a drink and spewed out vulgar curses.

It was no exaggeration to say that he had learned most of the vulgar language used in this world while listening to his mother badmouth the nobles of the Imperial Capital.

“Mother, why do you grind your teeth so much when you think about the place where you were born and raised in the Imperial Capital? It’s still your hometown.”

When he asked out of curiosity, his mother’s eyes were filled with regret.

“Son. As you well know, this mother was an untainted human being who only chased after pure love.”

That meant she had met and dated several men. At the same time.

“But most of the Imperial Capital thugs were different. They only pursue love by chasing after bloodlines. They don’t care who the man in front of them is, or what kind of soul he has. Do you really think that’s love?”

“Well. Isn’t chasing after a better bloodline a form of love?”

“You should have seen those damn women chasing after His Highness the Prince to meet him once.”

He had seen them.

In the few rounds he had spent in the Imperial Capital.

It felt almost like a fan club.

“Soul to soul, eye to eye. Finding the real love within is the path to happiness. Remember that, son.”

“Then what if I marry a commoner woman?”

“I’ll erase you cleanly from the family’s lineage. Don’t even dream about it.”

Even his mother, who advocated for the purity of love, couldn’t tolerate a commoner.

‘In the midst of all this, they’re going to match Marigold with the Prince? Is this even a possible game?’

The difference in status. Numerous competitors. The aloof personalities of the Princes. And the endlessly high threshold of high society.

‘Can I really overcome this?’

Of course, it was possible. In the game. He even remembered it wasn’t that difficult.

If you just got lucky with a randomly appearing event, your favorability would skyrocket and you’d get married. That was all.

But that was the game.

This was reality.

‘First of all, I need to establish myself in the Imperial Capital. I think I’ll need some money too.’

That’s right. To connect the fallen Miss with the Prince, the problem was that he himself was a nobody.

Lancel decided to solve that problem first. It didn’t matter if it was a task that would take an unknown amount of time.

Spending time well was his specialty.

2.

Suddenly, he remembered a conversation with his Noona who had created this game.

‘Why are Mercenaries guarding the city?’

‘Is it weird?’

‘Huh?’

He immediately lost his words at the answer that came back.

It seemed that his Noona thought that Mercenaries could do some guarding. Maybe she thought of it as a security company?

Thanks to that, the influence of that setting remained deeply in the Empire, and the Mercenary Guild was outsourcing some of the city’s security as if it were natural.

As a result, countless swordsmen roamed the city, semi-legal violence and murder prevailed, and illegal organizations were able to thrive.

Well, that wasn’t his Noona’s concern.

“I didn’t know you’d be interested in the Mercenary business. No, isn’t that kind of work a bit too far from the nobility for a knight to step up and do it?”

Baron Ibil Shen was delighted to hear that Lancel was establishing a Mercenary group.

“I’ve needed Mercenaries often while doing business. But none of them are trustworthy. If you’re going to do it, investing a few coins is nothing.”

“Then, would about thirty gold coins be possible?”

“Is that difficult between us? But does Count Dante know?”

“Of course, he doesn’t.”

“Good. Let’s keep it that way in the future.”

Having easily secured the money, he first bought a large building on the outskirts of Rodniss.

He set up a reception desk on the first floor, and accommodations on the second and third floors, making it feel like a large Mercenary Guild to anyone who saw it.

It wasn’t difficult to fill the staff and Mercenaries.

Lancel had brought quite a few servants with him when he left the family this time. Twelve of the most trustworthy people.

“Are we just supposed to sit here, Young Master?”

When he put the maids at the reception desk and had the burly servants sit inside, it was now a Mercenary Guild to anyone who saw it.

[Mercenary Guild Lancel]

The servants looked at Lancel with rather puzzled faces as they watched him happily looking at the sign, but no one complained. It was the result of filling it with only the most trustworthy servants from the previous rounds.

There was also an elderly guard among them. He had a slightly unusual task to entrust to him.

“If you go to 31st Street in the Imperial Capital, there is a child named Mary. Go and teach her swordsmanship.”

“As you command.”

“Don’t you ask why?”

“Everything Young Master does must have a reason. I think it’s a good thing since I have not had much to do anyway.”

The results appeared immediately the next day.

==========

—Imperial Calendar 818, March 3rd. Weather: Cloudy.

—Event occurred! ‘Goal: Swordmaster!’

※You will receive basic swordsmanship training starting today.

==========

It was common for Marigold to learn swords or magic. At least in the game.

But in reality, it wasn’t easy for a young Miss to suddenly decide to learn swords, so Lancel had forcibly created that situation.

A month later.

==========

—Imperial Calendar 818, April 9th. Weather: Clear.

—Marigold has mastered basic swordsmanship training.

※You can receive beginner swordsmanship training starting today.

==========

“Already?”

Two more months passed.

==========

—Imperial Calendar 818, June 1st. Weather: Rainy.

—Marigold has mastered beginner swordsmanship training.

※You can receive intermediate swordsmanship training starting today.

※Part-time job interview list has been updated. Guard, soldier, Mercenary, training instructor, thief, and traveler have been newly added.

==========

‘…Is she perhaps a genius?’

Lancel was about to be a little surprised at Marigold’s much faster achievements than he had expected.

When he called Marigold’s swordsmanship teacher, the guard, and asked him, he replied to Lancel with tearful eyes.

“Most of what I have is already in that child, Young Master. I have nothing more to teach that child. I am resentful. I am so resentful of my lacking achievements and skills.”

“……”

A lament that he had no ability to teach his disciple any further.

Lancel thought, ‘As expected, is the protagonist different in some way?’ and quietly patted him on the shoulder.

“Young Master.”

It was then.

He heard the voice of a maid from behind. A woman who had been with Lancel since the last round, Hesti.

“A request has arrived at the Mercenary Guild today. But the person who sent it… is Count Palatine.”

Here it comes.

Lancel knew that his investment had finally succeeded.

The ‘escort event,’ which had the highest probability of occurring among the events in the game, had safely arrived for him.

‘This isn’t a request sent by the Count Palatine. This is…’

The request was simple.

It was a request to find a missing man and woman and bring them to the Imperial Capital. The deadline was within one year from now.

“Hesti, start recruiting Mercenaries from today.”