I Don’t Want To Be the Main Character

Side story 4. IF (2)

1.

“Discuss all matters related to this with my adjutant.”

“Yes, yes, is there any possibility?”

The mercenary captain, who had arrived late, exchanged a few brief words with Eileen as a courtesy. Leaving the mercenary captain behind, who seemed to be bowing down to the point of being mean, Eileen glanced at Ludrick again.

It was an appearance that did not seem to fit in at all with this gloomy mercenary group.

He still has a youthful look and an appearance that stimulates a kind of protective instinct. Although he is dressed like a typical mercenary, he still cannot completely erase the feeling of being a noble young master, as his adjutant put it.

‘You said you ran away from home and became a mercenary?’

In fact, it was a mercenary group that hired Ludrick solely based on his skills. Naturally, the adjutant, who was meticulous, had thoroughly investigated Ludrick, and thanks to that, he was able to find out even the facts that he wasn’t particularly curious about.

He was born into a humble family that was called noble, but was no different from a local gentry.

On that subject, he ran away from his family saying he didn’t want a political marriage and tried to become an adventurer, but when things didn’t go as planned, he threw himself into the mercenary world and joined a mercenary group. Rumor has it that all the sinister mercenaries who tried to do something to him after seeing his half-and-half face were all roasted and killed.

“I can’t stop you.”

Eileen muttered in her characteristically dry tone.

For a moment, Eileen’s expression changed slightly as she thought about what it would be like if she had a son who was such a troublemaker. Her expression seemed to be one of disgust.

For Eileen, whose facial expressions rarely changed, this could be considered an unusual change, but soon Eileen erased that expression and went back to a blank expression as she stared at Ludrick.

Ludrick, who was receiving that gaze, did not even notice the gaze directed at him and was chatting with another mercenary next to him. He was also noisily chatting away with a uniquely noble smile on his face, as if he was finding something so good about the noble spirits.

“Are men just men?”

Eileen shrugged and walked towards Ludrick.

From what I have seen and heard so far, Ludrick was just a noble young man with a bit of a strong sense of execution. Not all parties to a political marriage are willing to do it, so it is impossible that anyone did not imagine that the noble spirits who became the victims of that marriage would run away somewhere.

Now, Ludrick was the one who had the drive to act quickly among them, and he was lucky enough to have excellent magical skills, so he had managed to stay out of trouble until now.

Nothing more, nothing less.

Although Eileen had made that assessment, there was something about Ludrick that aroused a strange interest.

If you just watch it, you’ll start to feel a sense of interest.

Eileen, who had been living an ascetic, unmarried life completely distant from the opposite s*x, without any thought of having an heir until this age, was unaware of it.

That this is the process of starting to open your eyes to the opposite s*x.

Even if the Black Lion of the North, the great Eileen Nord, knew that, there was no way she would admit it.

2.

After signing the condottieri contract.

I realized belatedly that something was strange.

“hmm.”

A room filled with only thoroughly practical furniture and objects, excluding decorations. At first, I thought it was a room that perfectly embodied the Northern atmosphere, but upon thinking about it again, something seemed strange.

I knew that the contract was to go on an expedition beyond the Great Wall to eliminate the monsters, and since there was still some time left before the expedition, it was not strange for the principality to provide accommodations. And although it was still a culture that was hard for me to accept, it was not so strange that I, the only ‘male’ in the mercenary group, was given a separate room.

but.

“But this is the Grand Duke’s residence.”

This was the problem. The room I was in was part of the guest room attached to the Grand Duke’s residence.

So, to put it simply, it is a VIP room.

Am I a VIP? No matter how much I think about it, it doesn’t seem like it… … ?

I was bewildered by the cognitive dissonance that came over me for a moment. Even if I leave aside the fact that even the VIP room was so shabby that I was afraid that someone might say I wasn’t from the North, in the end, no matter how you look at it, I’m just a noble by birth, just one of the many mercenary scoundrels.

But you’re even giving me a VIP room?

“Huhh …

It’s subtle, it’s subtle.

I sat quietly and thought about it, but I couldn’t come up with a clear answer. It’s a reasonable suspicion considering that all the other members except me were assigned to accommodations in the city, but I can’t figure out why.

As I sat there thinking on the soft, fluffy bed that was incomparable to the straw beds of cheap inns, I heard a knock on the door.

“I brought you some food.”

“Oh, come in.”

The door opened and a sharp-faced woman came in, placing a tray and plates on the table and speaking.

“If you need anything, please ring this bell.”

“Oh, yes.”

I absentmindedly accepted the bell that was handed to me while I was setting up the food, but as soon as the food was all set up, the woman turned around and left the room.

Obvious special treatment.

And then, one more suspicious circumstance was caught. After all, no matter how you package it, being a mercenary means living a life of eating rice by the knife, and living that life, I guess I have developed a certain level of discernment. Thanks to that, I was able to closely watch the woman who was setting up the food just a moment ago, and I was able to confirm one suspicious point.

“There were calluses, for sure.”

These weren’t the natural calluses that would come from simply living. They were the calluses that would come from specialized training in weaponry, which were commonly seen among other mercenaries around him.

“……Does the Grand Duke’s family also train their maids in martial arts?”

That was nonsense.

Roughly speaking, if you substitute the maid of this world into my previous life, the position is similar to that of a male servant. The person who just came in, set up the food, and left looked extraordinary at first glance, but there’s no way that someone with such skills would be working as a maid. If that were the case, I would have gone beyond the barrier and completely wiped out the barbarians or monsters.

There’s definitely something fishy going on, but I can’t seem to get a handle on it.

After finishing the meal with a fork and knife with a subtle sense of discomfort, I continued to wait. There was nothing to do before departure, and it was the moment when I opened the door and went out, thinking that I could freely walk around the inside of the residence.

On the other side of the hallway, the Northern Archduke we had met earlier, the Black Lion of the North, Eileen Nord, was walking back.

Long black hair, pure white skin, pursed lips, and an expressionless face. I couldn’t see it properly because I was too flustered earlier, but it looked exactly the same as what I had heard through rumors.

“ah.”

“hmm.”

The Northern Duke and I stopped almost simultaneously without saying who would go first.

The atmosphere was extremely awkward.

No, after all, I’m just a hired mercenary. And I’m going to go to the Northern Duke and greet him first as if I’m friendly? No, no. Especially since I’ve heard rumors about the Northern Duke being so brutal.

He was a man who literally killed hundreds of barbarians by himself and bathed in their blood. No matter how friendly I was, I wasn’t brave enough to go up to someone like that and act friendly.

In the end, I decided that it was best to just sit quietly and wait for the other side to speak first, but coincidentally, the Northern Duke, who I met right in front of my nose, just stared at me without saying a word.

‘… … Did I do something wrong?’

I don’t know how I went against your will, but if you just look at me without saying anything, isn’t there something you don’t like?

A heavy silence hung in the air for a while.

It would be fortunate if it was only heavy, but it was extremely difficult to stand awkwardly in front of the Northern Duke, whose thoughts I had no idea about.

After an eternity of silence, the Northern Duke spoke first.

“Ludrick Weiss.”

“yes……?”

“The eldest son of the Vice Count family. He currently has enemies in the mercenary group, but they say he is more skilled than you might think. He could even be promoted to senior researcher if he enters the Magic Tower.”

“Well, that’s too much praise… but… how did you…?”

“hmm.”

The Northern Duke kept his mouth shut.

Those eyes, whose thoughts I still couldn’t figure out, stared at me intently. Those eyes that made me feel a little bit intimidated even though I hadn’t committed any crime.

“Have you ever thought of signing an exclusive contract with a principality you’ve seen before?”

“yes?”

“If you don’t plan on ending your runaway life, then if you sign a contract as an exclusive magician, I can give you a decent salary.”

“……Oh, so that’s a very sudden suggestion.”

“I think it’s better than being a mercenary. I’ll wait for a positive response.”

After saying those words, the Northern Duke, who had been looking at me, passed me by without saying a word.

“Phew…….”

Only after the Northern Duke disappeared around the corner of the hallway was I able to catch my breath. The air itself had been heavy just moments before.

And after the Northern Duke belatedly disappeared.

I glanced back at the spot where she had disappeared and muttered.

“……Are you a stalker? How do you know all that?”

From the moment I ran away from home to my last name. Originally, no one in our mercenary corps knew about this except the captain.

You didn’t even do any background checks on me… … No, I’m just a hired mercenary, so why are you interested in me?

I thought about it for a while, but I still don’t know.

One thing that is certain is that we need to be careful with that Northern Duke… … ?

It never hurts to be careful with stalkers.