21.LITTLE GIRL CONVINCES THEM
“Although the pa.s.sion of things burning little by little is beautiful, there is nothing more beautiful than the destruction of the world by explosions. The expression people have at the instant they are blown up remains in my heart as if time had been cut off. Hihi, you get it, right, Bal-danna.”
“I don´t know. I just cut people.”
The first meeting of the two slaves was like two parallel lines. However, it was certain that neither of them were good people.
After leaving the slave trading company, the first thing Bela did was to head to the equipment shop in order to prepare equipment for Jadan. Jadan already had a leather armor that was given by his master, so it was enough to buy just a few equipment. After that, they had lunch at the nearby dinner. By then, the time they had arranged to meet at the mercenary a.s.sociation was approaching.
From all the conversation along the way, they got to know that Jadan was a Dragonyult that liked to destroy things with explosions. It seemed that this trait was what was to blame for how he was captured as a slave. In a few words, Jadan was a convicted slave. Besides that, he became battle slave. Of course, the reason for that was because most of his prey had been blown up.
“Well, I will soon prepare you something to hunt, so do go exploding anything here.”
“Hihihi, understood.”
Hearing Bela´s words, Jadan nodded while putting his tongue out like a snake.
“Hm, I wonder if I can group up Borudo with him.””
Bela estimated that if she was to combine the defensive capabilities of Borudo´s gnome [Barkas] and the fire power of Jadan´s Salamas [Expressif], depending on their training, they might come out as a reasonably good force. She didn´t want to have Borudo go out in the battlefield too much since he was necessary for the maintenance, but she also didn´t want to leave out a fighting force she could use.
“Well, let´s first actually put them together and see the results.”
While thinking about that, Bela arrived a bit off from the promised time at the mercenary a.s.sociation.
At the building of the a.s.sociation, she met a problem.
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“You know, even if I owe Kooza-danna, it doesn´t mean that I´m going to babysit some brat.”
Inside the mercenary a.s.sociation, the person Bela came to meet due to Kooza´s introduction said while glaring at them. Her name was Maia Hawk, a woman that was over her thirties. She was the leader of the mercenary group Rouzen that Kooza introduced to Bela. Bela and the others were surrounded by the men that seemed to be the members of that group.
“In first place, you see. You said you were the mercenary group Beladonna, right? How ridiculous. If you want to play make believe as a queen, you should go back to your home, ojou-chan.”
With Maia´s words, her followers all laughed at the same time.
Bela was looking at that scene with narrowed eyes. Being treated like that, Jadan was putting his tongue out as he looked at the scene, and Bal was looking at how Bela was going to react to that.
Originally, this was a case that it couldn´t be helped that Maia got rubbed in the wrong way.
Having become a machiini pilot despite being a woman, it definitely wasn´t an easy path in these sixteen years Maia had been leading her mercenary group.
Other mercenaries would get jealous of her, thinking of her as just some woman that got lucky to get to become a machiini pilot. On some cases, there would be n.o.bles that would try to get her in their bed, thinking of her as if she was some kind of rare specimen.
Having tempered herself with all that piling up onto her, no matter how much she owed to Kooza, she wouldn´t accept the request of having the members of her group babysit over a child.
The Beladonna mercenary group was composed of two machiinis and two elements. Although their combat strength wasn´t low, for a group named Beladonna, Maia felt it was too c.o.c.ky of them to name themselves after someone that was once a hero.
Although there was no mistake the young girl in front of her eyes had a different aura to her, there still was that she was of the Rahsa race. Maia thought maybe Bela was living on her own because it was some kind of custom of her combative people, or something related to her training or so, so she a.s.sumed that Kooza was pushing her guard over them.
“”Really, that´s not a joke. No matter how much you´ve done for me, I´m not doing babysitting.””
Seeing Maia, who was becoming angrier as she thought about those things, Bela snorted and asked her.
“So, how much do you want?”
Hearing that, Maia´s group members became filled with anger and stepped forward. Bela was ignoring what Maia was saying and was already talking about money. What Bela said couldn´t be regarded as anything other than that she was making fun of them. Maia also didn´t stop the actions of her men. Even if Bela was a child, there still were limits.
“I can get you money, you know? Is there anything else a mercenary needs other than that?”
One of the men jumped forward in front of Bela.
“Anego is speaking. This isn´t a place ojou-chan can be meddling wi…. Aah, aaaah!?”
“Hyahya.”
Bam*
The trembling ran through the floor. Hearing the sound, the receptionist showed up from the reception desk, and the gatekeeper prepared himself just as aways so that he could take action at anytime.
At the place the sound came from, there was a man fallen. Bela captured the man´s neck with the pike part of the war hammer she was holding as if she was reaping gra.s.s while pressing him onto the floor.
Let alone the reaction of the receptionist and gatekeeper that came over after hearing the sound, even Maia´s group, who were close-up looking at the situation, took time to understand what was taking place there. A little kid took down an adult and was now standing over him. It was hard to blame them for not understanding what was happening. Maia and the others were only able to completely understand what happened when the glimmer of Bela´s knife reached their eyes.
“Wh-what?”
Without understanding what was happening, the man fallen at the floor turned his face upward. In front of his eyes was the little girl licking her lips while she moved her knife down.
“Gauro!?”
Even though Maia unconsciously shouted for his name, Bela´s knife was stuck at the floor right next to the neck of the man called Gauro.
“Hii.”
Facing such reality, Gauro raised a scream. The other men around also couldn´t move. They were being overwhelmed by the smile of the little girl.
“How is it, fellow? That´s just a request of this cute ojou-chan.”
While laughing, Bela said to the man.
“Not long ago, I couldn´t get to suck my mama´s b.r.e.a.s.t.s anymore, so left home. But as to be expected, children die without drinking their milk.”
Like the voice of a cat being stroked, she whispered next to the man´s ear. The face of the man became pale. An nonsensical fear pressured him.
“Brat, release Gauro.”
Although Maia shouted, Bela completely ignored her words and asked.
“Why?
Pa.s.sing her knife at his neck, she drew a red line. The small moans of the man resounded.
“I told you to release him!”
Facing such situation, Maia was about to draw her sword and jump in. However…
“Bal.”
Reacting to Bela´s call, Bal pressed the tip of his katana at Maia´s throat before she could bring her sword up. Maia wasn´t able to see Bal´s movement. The tan-skinned man appeared before her eyes as if he had teleported.
“Can´t you shut up for a bit? I want to get through it without ha.s.sle. I´m going to convince each of you one by one.”
As Bela was speaking and putting force on her knife, the man before her eyes was groaning while in tears. It was terrifying.
Gauro understood that from the view of that young girl that was supposed to be far younger than himself, she could easily steal his life away to the point she didn´t feel hesitation. Terrified, Gauro couldn´t hold himself from leaking that thing at his groin.
“Oya oya, looks like you´ve been holding up. So, can I hire you now?”
Bela laughed. The man caught by Bela sent Maia a pleading look. He didn´t want to cause shame to his leader. However, there was a limit even to that. Before saying anything, he showed his pleading on his face.
“Anego, that´s bad s.h.i.t. That guy is Bal, the champion.”
Seeming that he knew about Bal, one of the men spoke. And then, Bal told Maia.
“Can you not take the offence? Really, I am getting worried that master might order me to kill everyone here.”
“That´s giving me a bad impression, you know?”
Hearing Bal´s saying that, Bela said. Jadan laughed at that
And then, at Bal she thought for a bit. Then, after sighing, she said.
“I see, so in the end you have the enough strength for danna to take interest on you… s.h.i.t, alright then.” (TL note: Better way to phrase that? It´s impossible to translate it properly to english T.T ->なるほど、旦那のお気に入りだけはあるってことかい。
Maia put her sword in the scabbard.
“I´m sorry. I will hear your story.”
With those few words, Bela took her knife away from Gauro´s neck. And then, after Bela stood up, Maia said to her with a harsh glare.
“However, we won´t work under threats. We are also risking our lives here. I would like you to tell us some info on our job.”
“Well, obviously.”
With Bela acting like that, Maia put on an even moodier face and looked at the man fallen on the floor.
“Besides, that guy is part of our crew. To try to hire someone without first talking to the group leader is against the proper manners. Remember this well.”
“Sorry there. It hasn´t been long since I became a mercenary, so I don´t really know about the rules there, you see.”
Hearing Bela´s “Hyahyahya” laugh, Maia felt like she was having a headache.
Both the thoughts that Bela was annoying and that she acting like that was the obvious by looking at her age were surging inside Maia at the same time. At least, if she was to consider Bela´s outward age, it should have been that Maia had been at battles as a mercenary before Bela was even born.
Thinking about those things up to that point, Maia once again revised her understanding of the situation. After realizing she was being led by her nose by the young girl in front of her eyes, she couldn´t help but give a deep sigh.