Wandering Mercenary in an Open World
chapter-70

Tarwen gently brushed her bangs away from her face and asked,

“Ruon, do you have any prejudice against witches?”

What are you talking about?

Ruon tilted his head at the sudden question.

“I don’t know what you want to hear. I just think of them as women who use magic. Why? Is that a prejudice?”

“Of course not. Not at all.”

Tarwen shook her head vigorously and got up from the floor, leaning on her hand. She dusted off the dirt on her body and said,

“These days, people think of witches as beings who sleep with demons, dry up and kill crops, and stab straw dolls with needles. There are many cases where they are branded as such.

Ruon snorted in disbelief at the fairy who was laughing sarcastically.

“Do you want me to comfort you for the harsh judgment of the world? Just get to the point. The point.”

Tarwen didn’t answer right away, but instead scanned the corpses that were scattered around. Soon, she found the twisted wall and the assassin’s body that had dropped his head. She walked over to them.

“I was saying that there are cheap witches, too. Like me, for example.”

Tarwen muttered a self-deprecating remark and picked up a feather from the floor. Without hesitation, she slit her palm with it.

In the blink of an eye, a pool of blood formed on her palm and she dropped it on the assassin’s head. A faint spell came out of her lips.

Aaaah-

A creepy scream swept through the restaurant. Then, the evil soul that sprang from the floor began to run around wildly, swallowing the gloomy energy that was imbued in the spell. Even though there was no wind, his hair fluttered.

Ruon frowned at the sight.

“What a mess.”

The ego sword in his hand conveyed his passionate emotion to his master.

-Let’s attack!-

But Ruon didn’t move rashly. He would have normally cut down the screaming evil soul with one stroke, but he chose to watch first, since Tarwen was the cause of this commotion.

──!

At that moment, he saw the soul that was wandering around enter the body of the corpse as the incomprehensible spell ended with a period.

Tarwen turned her head slowly and said,

“I told you I had something to ask, right? Ask now.”

“Alright.”

Ruon approached the corpse, passing by her eyes that seemed to be filled with self-loathing. He bent his knees and lowered his posture.

“···Hey.”

As he spoke to the corpse with doubt, surprisingly, his eyelids slowly lifted.

Ruon looked at the face of Biamo, who was blinking his dull eyes, and asked,

“What is the waning moon?”

Then, his lifeless lips twitched and a flat voice came out.

“We are pilgrims who find the shining starlight in the emptiness of life, and judges who hasten the death of the worthless.”

Are you kidding me?

Ruon snorted at the nonsense that sounded like ‘we kill people’. He said,

“Enough, what did you do to recognize me and attack me without even knowing me?”

The corpse answered.

“When inevitable death comes, we leave a covenant to the one who gave us death and entrust our revenge to our remaining brothers.”

He continued.

“One who faces one, will soon face all. The waning moon does not forget revenge.”

Ruon sighed at the meaningless answer.

“You and the assassin from last time, you said you don’t forget revenge, but in reality, you just ran into me by chance. You didn’t actually chase after me. Is this how your great brothers’ revenge works? You attack whenever you meet?”

The corpse, who had been answering without hesitation, fell silent for the first time at that question. His mouth slowly opened after a while.

“Name, Ruon. A wandering mercenary with no affiliation, origin and past unknown, first mission was goblin extermination, where he was injured according to the client’s testimony, but only five years later, he showed an unbelievable growth by hunting wyverns in Narudin as a solo.”

What?

Ruon narrowed his eyes at the assassin who suddenly started reciting his personal information.

“Judging by his mysterious growth rate and strength, he should refrain from personal actions and request support from the order when he comes into contact. Request… “

The blood flowed out of his eyes, nose, and mouth as he recited the words he couldn’t keep. He muttered in vain.

At that moment, Tarwen, who had been silent, spoke.

“I’m sorry, but this is as far as I can hold him. If I go any further, his soul will crumble completely. Of course, I won’t stop you if that’s the ending you want.”

Ruon shook his head.

“Killing him was enough.”

At his words, Tarwen waved her hand lightly.

Then, the corpse’s dull eyes closed and he dropped his head.

Ruon spat on the floor and got up. Tarwen said to him,

“He was no ordinary assassin. The Waning Moon, they call themselves…”

“Do you know them?”

“They’re a bunch of perverts who preach about their faith while killing people for money. They have a special relationship with Fleur.”

“I see.”

“How did you get involved with them?”

Ruon sheathed his sword and replied.

“I killed two assassins who massacred a village a while ago. Ever since then, their so-called comrades would show up and try to avenge them. And they did some background checks on me too. They only pick the pretty jobs, you see.”

Tarwen shook his head, sensing the irritation and anger in his hoarse voice.

“Your life hasn’t been easy, has it? No, wait. Smooth sailing for the warrior who killed the Great Demon. There’s no word that fits less than that.”

She muttered, looking around at the chaos.

“Let’s clean up this place first. If we leave them alone, they might turn into ghouls and cause more trouble.”

After dispelling the curse that lingered on the corpses of the human hunters, the two left the inn, avoiding the eyes of the people.

They felt sorry for the innkeeper’s body that lay sprawled in the kitchen, but it was an inevitable choice, as things would get much more complicated if they caught the attention of others while cleaning up.

Fortunately, Olbor was a fairly large city with more than six big and small inns, so they had no trouble finding a new place to stay.

After dropping off their luggage, Tarwen looked at Ruon with a hazy gaze and said.

“Even if I get arrested for murder right now, I need to get some sleep. I’m so sleepy I’m going crazy.”

She had regained her senses temporarily by the divine power, but the effect of the sleeping pill was still there. As soon as her head touched the bed, Tarwen lost consciousness.

Ruon left the drowsy fairy behind and went outside. He looked around for a while and approached a young girl who was holding a hard bread in her arms.

The girl, who was dressed shabbily, seemed to be scared by Ruon’s imposing stature, but she didn’t run away and spoke with a trembling voice.

“Uh, sir, do you want to buy some bread?”

“How much?”

“One copper coin… uh, no, two.”

The bread in her fern-like hand was hardly edible. It was covered with dirt, and it had lost all its moisture, making it no different from a rock.

But Ruon gladly took it and rummaged through his pocket to hand her two coins.

“Thank you. Huh? I think you gave me the wrong one. This is a silver coin…”

Ruon gently ruffled the girl’s hair, who was stuttering at the silver coin in her palm, and said.

“I gave you the right one. But I have a favor to ask you.”

“Just tell me. I’ll do anything I can.”

Ruon smiled slyly, seeing the child swallow her saliva.

“Where is the smithy in this city?”

“Huh?”

“Where is the smithy, I asked.”

“Is that really all?”

“Why? Are you afraid I’ll ask you to kill someone?”

The girl flinched at the extreme example and shook her head vigorously.

“N-no. Follow me.”

She took the lead, walking timidly, and headed south of the city. Soon, they reached a street full of various workshops.

Among them, she stopped in front of an entrance where hot air was leaking out and pointed to the sign with her finger.

“Here it is.”

“Good, you did well.”

Ruon nodded as if to say that was enough, and the girl blinked her big eyes and bowed.

“Thank you very much.”

Ruon watched the child walk away for a moment and then entered the smithy.

A grumpy-looking middle-aged man greeted him.

“Looking for a weapon?”

The middle-aged man, who had just finished his work and was wiping off his sweat with his sleeve, was a sturdy dwarf.

That’s good.

Ruon lowered his head and answered.

“No, I have something to fix.”

“Oh, really? Come on.”

The dwarf gestured to the workbench.

“Put it here.”

Ruon took out a wrist guard from his backpack and laid it down. The blacksmith grabbed it with a sparkle in his eyes. Then he widened his eyes.

“Look at this! This is not a simple wrist guard, is it? It’s very elastic, and the silver thread wrapped around it can do both attack and defense, right?”

The blacksmith muttered to himself and brought a thin iron plate. He pushed it towards the silver thread. Then the iron plate was cut smoothly like butter.

“Good heavens! This is an unbelievable cutting power. What did you make this with? No, how can the blade and the wrist guard be undamaged when they are in direct contact with this thing…”

He looked at Ruon and asked.

“Where did you get such a thing?”

“It’s a loot.”

“Ah…”

Ruon spoke to the blacksmith who was at a loss for words and fidgeted with his mouth.

“You must have checked it, but the blade of the guard is broken. Can you fix it?”

The dwarf made an awkward expression at that question.

“…It seems difficult.”

He clenched his fist as if his pride was hurt by his own words.

“Of course, I can fix it on the surface. But it won’t last long before the blade is cut off by the cutting power of the silver thread. To be honest, I find it hard to believe that there is no damage to the original blade. Is this a magic-imbued equipment?”

Ruon nodded.

“The owner said so. He said it was a thing with various magics imbued.”

“…I see.”

The blacksmith stroked his bushy beard and muttered.

“Then the repair is even harder. I have to imbue magic on the new blade, but I’m ignorant of that kind of thing. I’d rather recycle it…”

Recycle?

Ruon tilted his head and asked.

“What do you mean by recycling?”

“Just as I said. With my humble skill, I can’t fix this thing as it was, but I can make it into a different equipment without harming the magic that dwells here.”

Ruon nodded as he found it interesting.

“That’s rather good. It wasn’t a thing that suited me anyway. I had trouble disposing of it.”

“You say you had trouble disposing of such a thing. You, you’re asking for Duermyr’s wrath.”

The dwarf shook his head vigorously and said.

“Well, fine. If that’s what you want, I think I can help you. What kind of thing do you want?”

At that question, Ruon raised his arm and scratched his cheek. What would be good?

He had the Black Ego Sword and Ruin, which were enough, and the bow was a special thing he received from the goddess, so he didn’t need anything else.

After pondering for a while, he opened his mouth.

“Make it something that’s easy to throw. Yeah, a thick dagger would be nice.”

The dwarf readily agreed.

“Okay, that’s enough.”

“How long will it take?”

“Um, at least a fortnight. I have a lot of work piled up right now, and it’s not easy to handle this kind of thing.”

Ruon shook his head.

“That’s a bit troublesome. It takes too long. Can’t you reduce it to less than half?”

The dwarf frowned as if he was offended by his words.

“Hey. You’re not the center of the world, and everyone has their own situation. If you say that, I’m the one who’s in trouble.”

There was no choice.

Ruon started to roll up his sleeve with a firm refusal.

The blacksmith glared as he revealed his huge arm.

“Are you threatening me…”

But he couldn’t finish his sentence. It was because he saw the tattoo that was firmly on Ruon’s shoulder.

A hammer tattoo engulfed in flames. And the immense heat that he felt from it.

Ruon tilted his head and asked.

“Do you recognize it? They say every dwarf knows it.”

The blacksmith trembled and involuntarily murmured.

“F, fire warrior?”

He realized that his eyes were not mistaken and he quickly raised three fingers and shouted.

“T, three days! Three days! I’ll finish it within three days!”