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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: FusionX
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“Discuss all related matters with my adjutant.”
“Yes, yes, of course.”
The mercenary captain, who had appeared belatedly, exchanged a few brief, formal words with Eileen.
Leaving behind the captain, who was bowing obsequiously, almost to the point of servility, Eileen glanced at Rudrick once more.
He seemed completely out of place in this drab mercenary company.
He still retained a youthful air and a look that evoked a protective instinct.
Even dressed in typical mercenary garb, he couldn’t quite shake off the air of a young nobleman, as her adjutant had described.
‘He ran away from his family and became a mercenary, was it?’
The mercenary company had been hired practically solely on Rudrick’s skill.
Naturally, her meticulous adjutant had thoroughly investigated Rudrick’s background, and thanks to that, Eileen knew things she hadn’t been particularly curious about.
He was a noble in name only, born into a humble family, little more than local gentry.
Despite that, he had run away from his family, rejecting an arranged marriage and aspiring to become an adventurer.
When that didn’t work out, he joined a mercenary company, and it had been a year since.
Rumor had it that any mercenary with lewd intentions towards his handsome face had been roasted alive.
“Unbelievable,” Eileen murmured in her usual dry tone.
A faint expression flickered across Eileen’s face as she briefly imagined having such a troublesome son.
It was a look of utter disgust.
This was an exceptional change for Eileen, whose expressions rarely changed. But she quickly erased the look and returned to her usual impassive mask, staring intently at Rudrick.
Rudrick, oblivious to her gaze, was chatting with another mercenary.
He was chattering away with a cheerful smile, typical of young noblemen, about something they seemed to find amusing.
“Men will be men,” Eileen shrugged and walked towards Rudrick.
Based on what she’d seen and heard so far, Rudrick was just a young nobleman with a strong sense of initiative.
Not all parties involved in arranged marriages were happy about them, so it wasn’t surprising that some young nobles would fantasize about running away.
Rudrick was simply more proactive than most, lucky enough to possess exceptional magical talent, allowing him to avoid hardship so far.
That was all there was to it.
That was Eileen’s assessment, but there was something strangely intriguing about Rudrick.
Watching him, she felt a flicker of interest.
Eileen, who had lived a stoic warrior’s life, completely detached from romantic interests and without any thought of having heirs, was unaware.
That this was the beginning of her romantic awakening.
Of course, even if she knew, the Black Lion of the North, the infamous Eileen Nord, would never admit it.
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After signing the condottieri contract.
I belatedly realized something was amiss.
“Hmm.”
The room was filled with purely practical furniture and items, devoid of any decorations.
At first, I thought it simply reflected the North’s austere style, but on second thought, something felt off.
I knew the contract was for an expedition beyond the Great Wall to exterminate monsters, and it wasn’t strange for the Duchy to provide lodging until the deployment. And though it was still a custom I found hard to accept, it wasn’t unusual for me, the only ‘man’ in the mercenary company, to be given a separate room.
However…
“But this is the Grand Duchess’s residence.”
That was the problem.
This room was part of the guest quarters attached to the Grand Duchess’s residence.
In other words, it was a VIP room.
Was I a VIP? No matter how I thought about it, that didn’t seem right…
I was momentarily bewildered by the cognitive dissonance.
Setting aside the fact that even the VIP room was sparsely furnished, typical of the North, I was, in the end, just one of many mercenaries, even if I was of noble birth.
And they gave me a VIP room?
“Hrmmm…”
This was strange, very strange.
I sat and racked my brains, but couldn’t come up with a reasonable explanation.
It was suspicious enough that all the other members were assigned lodgings in the city, but I couldn’t figure out why.
As I sat on the plush bed, far more comfortable than the straw-filled beds of cheap inns, lost in thought, I heard a knock on the door.
“I’ve brought your meal.”
“Ah, come in.”
The door opened, and a sharp-featured woman entered, placing a tray and dishes on the table.
“If you need anything, please ring this bell.”
“Ah, yes.”
I absentmindedly accepted the bell she handed me mid-meal setup. As soon as she finished setting the table, she turned and left the room.
This was clearly special treatment.
And then, another suspicious detail caught my attention. No matter how you dressed it up, mercenaries lived a rough life, and I had developed a keen eye for detail.
I had been observing the woman who had just set the food, and I noticed something suspicious.
“She had calluses, definitely.”
They weren’t the kind of calluses that formed naturally from everyday life.
They were the calluses commonly seen on other mercenaries, the kind that formed from specialized weapons training.
“…Does the Grand Duchess’s residence provide martial arts training for maids?”
That was absurd.
In this world, maids were roughly equivalent to male servants in my past life. The woman who had just come in and set the food looked extraordinary at a glance.
Someone with that kind of skill wouldn’t be working as a maid. If they were, they would have gone beyond the Wall and wiped out all the barbarians and monsters long ago.
Something was definitely off, but I couldn’t quite put my finger on it.
With a lingering sense of unease, I finished my meal with a fork and knife.
Then, it was back to waiting.
I remembered being told I could freely roam the residence until the expedition, so I opened the door and stepped out. And at that moment…
I saw the Grand Duchess of Nord, the Black Lion, Eileen Nord, walking towards me from the other end of the hallway.
Long black hair, snow-white skin, tightly pressed lips, and an impassive face.
I hadn’t been able to get a good look at her earlier, but she was exactly as described in the rumors.
“Ah.”
“Hmm.”
The Grand Duchess and I stopped almost simultaneously.
The atmosphere was incredibly awkward.
I was just a hired mercenary, after all. Should I approach the Grand Duchess and greet her first? No, that wouldn’t do.
Especially considering the chilling rumors about her.
She was said to have single-handedly slaughtered hundreds of barbarians and bathed in their blood.
Even with my friendly nature, I wasn’t bold enough to approach someone like that and act familiar.
The best course of action was to keep my eyes down and wait for her to speak first. Unfortunately, the Grand Duchess, standing right in front of me, just stared at me without saying a word.
‘…Did I do something wrong?’
I didn’t know how I had offended her, but if she was just staring at me without speaking, it meant she wasn’t pleased with something, right?
A heavy silence hung in the air.
It was bad enough that the atmosphere was heavy, but standing there awkwardly in front of the Grand Duchess, unsure of what she was thinking, was pure torture.
After an eternity of silence, the Grand Duchess finally spoke.
“Rudrick Weiss.”
“Y-yes…?”
“The eldest son of Countess Weiss. Currently working as a mercenary, but I hear your skills are quite exceptional. You’d be qualified for a senior researcher position at the Mage Tower.”
“Y-you flatter me… but how did you know all that…?”
“Hmm.”
The Grand Duchess closed her mouth.
Her unreadable eyes stared intently at me. Her gaze made me feel as if I had committed a crime, even though I hadn’t.
“Would you consider signing an exclusive contract with our Duchy?”
“What?”
“If you have no intention of returning home, that is. If you sign on as an exclusive mage, I can offer you decent compensation.”
“…Uh, well, that’s a very sudden offer.”
“I believe it’s better than working as a mercenary. I await your positive response.”
With those words, the Grand Duchess, who had been staring at me, brushed past me without a word.
“Huu…”
I could finally breathe again after the Grand Duchess turned the corner and disappeared. The air itself had felt heavy until then.
And after the Grand Duchess was gone…
I glanced at the spot where she had disappeared and muttered,
“…Is she a stalker? How does she know all that?”
From the fact that I ran away from home to my name. Only the captain of our mercenary company knew that.
Unless she investigated me… No, I’m just a hired mercenary, why would she be interested in me?
I thought about it for a moment, but I still couldn’t understand.
One thing was certain, I needed to be careful around the Grand Duchess…
It’s always better to be cautious around stalkers.
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