Irium

"Well, that was fun." I remark and I dust off my clothes. "I need to go now though."

As I turn around, I see the villagers who had all been kidnapped by these mercenaries earlier looking at me like I"m some kind of hero. I had sensed their gazes on me before but I was too focused on that fat elf to give more than a short glance at them. Now that I am looking more carefully, I can see some of them being real happy as they look at me while some are wary of me.

As for the remaining mercenaries, they have all given up on fighting me and are either trying to find a chance to run away or hide from my sight.

I couldn"t really care less about these idiots though. The only thing I care about before leaving is –

"How were you going to tell Niviks after killing me that the job he gave has been done?" I ask.

"W-we were going to meet him in Rania City."

From what I know from the map I have, Rania is the capital city of the province I am in right now and is merely 4 hours away from here on foot.

If what this guy says is true, then … wait a second,

The guy who answered gets being sucked in the quicksand as I glare at him. He cries out, "Please don"t, I"m telling the truth." I turn my gazes to other mercenaries and they all nod with seeming sincerity.

And so, he is telling the truth.

In that case, Niviks will be meeting me in Rania instead of these losers.

*****

As soon as Niviks enters my room, I stand up, unable to contain my nervousness at what he"d say next.

"…" He stays silent as if at a loss for how to word it.

"What is it? What happened?" I almost start jumping like a teenager with excitement at what it"ll be.

"It"s a total a wipeout. Everything played out perfectly, just as you predicted."

"Ha! Ha! Ha! Hahaha! You … you are serious, right? You aren"t kidding, are you?" I ask, unable to calm myself.

"Yes, boss. All your bets worked out. Danny and Roswaisa are coming to help and Irium destroyed that band of mercenaries quite easily."

That IS just as I expected. I can"t help but excited because of how smoothly my plan is working out.

"I don"t get it though." Niviks says with a troubled face, "Why are you asking Danny and Roswaisa for help? Wasn"t the plan originally to have them come to you over the time of a week?"

"Yes, it was. But when I gave some more consideration to the fact that Dues was causing troubles for Irium like you told me about recently, I realized how much influence she really has on this planet." I mean, she is very deeply connected to the planet after all. "There"s a possibility that she might already have an army or something hidden somewhere on this planet that will sabotage all my plans if we go in without backup."

Therefore, we need those two and the soldiers of Glice to back us up.

"If that is the case, what is with you asking them for buffs?" Niviks asks in confusion. But, that is hardly even a question.

"Oh, come on! You know how kind the populous of Glice is. If they see their allies getting slaughtered, they will go on the offensive themselves."

And so, why not act like we are not asking for aggressive support and make them see the offer in a better light?

And as one can see, the results have worked out. All the parties are about to be on Frost soon enough and there will be mayhem. And in this mayhem, I will reach my goal.

It"s finally happening. Years of planning and patience will finally pay off.

"So boss, what next?"

"Well, we should probably wait for things to start but," I say as soon as I realize, "since Irium defeated all of them, they probably told him about you hiring them and now he will be coming to meet you at the place you decided to meet up with those mercenaries after their mission"s hypothetical success."

"Oh, that"d be Rania City."

��Why Rania?"

"No particular reason. I mean, I had confidence that they would lose since you did, and so I just casually picked up the place closest to where things were about to go down for them."

"I see." I guess it"s partly my fault for not having realized that Irium would end up trying to meet Niviks in the place those mercenaries were supposed to. "I suppose we will have to go to Rania then."

He would probably be quite angry. This is a matter I"d need to deal with some care, as it could still lead to a problem if Irium backs out of the deal because of something like this.

*****

"Everything and everyone seems to be ready." Roswaisa casually voices her observation as she looks at the soldiers gathered up in proper formation in front of the gates.

"Yeah, it seems they know how to fall in formation, even if they have rarely gotten the chance to actually engage in combat." I agree with her observation.

"…"

"…"

As neither of us follows up with anything, it becomes clear what we are thinking.

"Having second thoughts about this?" I ask.

"Yeah, kinda. You too?" She asks and I nod.

Well, that"s how the situation is though. It"s too late to back out now. Since we have come this far, might as well go through with it. If nothing else, this mission would give me the chance to see what the planet Dues sent Irium to looks like.

*****