Magic Scavenger Part 1 Chapter 10

 Chapter 10: An Ominous Turn

As Kanata and Roa stood frozen, two men came out of the tent as if being chased out: a knight in armor and a man who looked like his squire.

Uval came out of the tent right behind them, his face twisted with fury and closed in on the knight.

"Just 'cause we ain't mages, you thought we wouldn't know?! That was third-tier Amplification Magic, wasn't it!? Don't you even know that's not a spell you fire off at a spot where your own allies might be standin'?!"

"My apologies. I was only just assigned here myself and I had no idea it was this kind of—"

"You said it yourself, didn't you... 'get under my command.' So you get us under your command, guide us right in and then use us as target practice for that pig mage? Explain it to me, Sir Knight!? 'Successfully guided target number one~! Target number two~!' Hey... how much were you plannin' to get paid per target you guided in!? Huh!?"

Uval, furious enough that the veins stood out on his forehead.

Glancing sideways at the knight getting chewed out, Kanata and Roa scurried over to Griare, keeping low.

"W-what happened...?"

"While we were fighting out on the battlefield... a spell came flying in at where we were, from the direction of our own side... We nearly got caught up in Viscount Danres's fire-attribute magic."

"A spell from your own side...?"

"Of course, there were enemies there too so I'd guess it was aimed at them... but even so, it was a close call for us. It was third-tier Amplification Magic, a spell like a tidal wave of fire. No matter how good we are, getting swallowed up by that would've been dangerous."

Griare tipped her chin toward Uval, still bearing down on the knight.

That anger didn't look like it'd be settling down anytime soon.

"So that's why, right now, a furious Uval is giving that Danres-army knight who'd been commanding us a piece of his mind. That's not settling down anytime soon."

"Fire...?"

"Magic...?"

Kanata and Roa exchanged a look.

Coincidence or not, both the spell that had landed near them earlier and the one that had nearly swallowed Roa whole were fire-attribute.

When they told Griare about it, her expression turned hard.

"You two as well...?"

"Y-yes but I don't think anyone could've known we were there... it's probably just a coincidence, right...?"

When Roa said that, Griare glanced quickly toward Uval, cold sweat beading on her forehead.

Then she crouched down and brought her mouth close to their ears.

"Don't either of you dare to tell Uval about this. I'll bring it up with him casually tonight. If I tell him right now... he's liable to actually kill that knight."

Even the boss wouldn't really do that, Kanata and Roa wanted to say, but it didn't sound like a joke at all.

Because right that moment, Uval looked worked up enough that drawing his sword on the knight in front of him wouldn't have been strange at all.

The two of them hadn't planned on saying anything anyway but they nodded repeatedly.

As long as they were working as battlefield scavengers, any danger they ran into was in a sense, on them.

Looking closer, the other mercenaries seemed on edge too and the battlefield-scavenger kids, picking up on that mood, were scared as well.

Fair enough. An attack from the enemy would be one thing but nearly dying to a spell from your own side wasn't something you could laugh off, no matter how used to danger a mercenary was supposed to be.

"Was the pay so good 'cause if you just kill us off, you don't gotta pay out the reward!? Huh!?"

"Captain Uval, your anger is entirely justified. But I want you to believe me. I had no intention whatsoever of guiding the Karejasu Mercenary Company into a spell's line of fire. As for putting you under my command, I figure that's only because I'm the new guy here."

"How am I supposed to believe that after what happened today?!"

Uval grabbed the knight by the throat.

The squire standing nearby moved his hand to his sword but the knight, throat still in Uval's grip, waved him off.

"My name is Faldinia. I swear on it: that I am a man fit to ride the dragon's back, one who takes your anger to heart and who will act to root out this injustice."

"......Tch!"

Looking Uval straight in the eye, the man who called himself Faldinia said that and Uval clicked his tongue and let go of him.

The dragon is the symbol of the Kingdom of Starrei. A fantastical king that swims through a night of falling stars.

If you invoked the nation's symbol to swear an oath, that was a declaration of faith offered up to the nation itself.

No matter how furious Uval was, the weight of those words wasn't something he could just ignore.

"We're mercenaries. Gettin' treated rough, that's just how it is. Depending on the situation, I'll take on dangerous work too. But gettin' targeted by our own side is a whole different story than just drawin' the short straw! I'll go back under your command next time too, just like you want. But if I get so much as a whiff of somethin' fishy next time... you know what happens, right?"

"At the very least, I can promise you that I'm your ally."

"Get outta here already. Go kiss up to that pig some more."

When Faldinia bowed his head to Uval, the squire, looking startled, bowed hesitantly along with him.

As Uval headed back into the tent, Faldinia turned toward Kanata and the others too, and bowed his head the same way.

Once the two of them finished their bows, they headed back toward the Danres camp under the cold stares of the mercenaries, Griare included.

"Good chance none of this was what that knight wanted either."

"You can tell?"

When Roa asked, Griare nodded.

"Knights are often young nobles without any claim to inheritance, or lower-ranking nobles servin' under a higher house. Judgin' by how they carried themselves... those two are probably nobles as well. And they bowed their heads to us mercenaries. That makes it pretty likely they're decent people."

"Heh..."

"There're commoner-born knights out there too. But you gotta be exceptionally skilled and have your character recognized on top of that... which is to say, it's a lost cause for our captain."

"Ahaha."

Griare's joke loosened up the tense atmosphere, just a little.

Even Kanata, who'd been watching Faldinia's retreating back, got pulled along and laughed too.

"I'm gonna go talk with Uval for a bit. I'll get him calmed down before dinner somehow, one way or another.

Men! I'm leavin' the kids and everything else to you!!"

"You got it, Big Sis!!"

"Leave it to us!!"

Griare gave the mercenaries their orders and went straight into the tent.

A little bit of talking could be heard from inside but Uval sounded calmer than before. There was no more of that wild, at-random-volume shouting.

"Kanata, we gotta go help make dinner."

"Ah, yeah... comin' now."

Kanata looked back and forth between the tent where Uval was and Faldinia's back as he walked away.

Then he took out the large handful of Rubbish he'd had stashed in his pocket. Every last piece was red, a color that meant fire-attribute.

"........."

For a moment, he tilted his hand like he might just let them spill onto the ground but at the last instant, Kanata closed his fist and stopped himself.

He tucked them straight back into his pocket and ran off toward Roa to help make dinner.

Inside his pocket, the little pebbles people called magic trash rattled and danced with every step.