I Pretended To Have Amnesia and the Hero’s Party Becomes Obsessed

1 – 1. The Worst Reunion (1)

The story with an interesting beginning doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a good story, but every good story has an interesting start.

In that sense, this story is undoubtedly a lousy one.

Everything began at 3rd Gatra Street, specifically in the dilapidated building of our mercenary group, the most secluded and rundown place.

“We hit the jackpot!!”

Our leader, as always, kicked open the door that seemed about to collapse, revealing himself.

Meanwhile, I, who was organizing the ledger, sighed and turned my gaze back to the accounts.

“Bro, it seems like the leader got scammed again, doesn’t it?”

Pea whispered to me as he polished his sword.

Ignoring him completely, I responded, “Don’t pay attention, youngster. You shouldn’t even glance at foolishness.”

“No, Vice Captain, this time it’s a real jackpot, right?”

The leader, who had approached me without my notice, slammed the ledger shut. I took off my glasses and rubbed my forehead.

“Leader.”

“Yeah, what is it?”

“What was the job you took on last time?”

“Um… clearing out an orc den, I think?”

Somewhere, there was a faint sound of something breaking. Suppressing my rising irritation, I asked, “That eventually became our task. What was the original request?”

“Uh…”

The leader’s face blanked out. Finally, Pea answered my question.

“Weren’t we supposed to clean up a goblin nest?”

“Was it?”

“It was.”

Thinking it was an easy task, we took fewer people…

I sighed again, recalling the hardships of that time.

However, the oblivious leader just shook his head in front of me.

“Ah… that was just one time…”

“It was the same last time.”

“It was the same last time. It was the same last time. It was the same last time. Exactly the same last time.”

From a simple bandit raid to a war between territories.

From capturing ordinary domestic animals to a large-scale extermination.

From a simple escort mission to the eradication of a cult.

I wonder how I managed to accept these requests.

I swallowed the bitter water rising within me and turned my head sideways.

“No, absolutely not.”

“But…”

“I said no.”

I cut him off.

Then, the leader glanced at the youngsters who were loosely hanging around, as if asking, “Do you know what I’m thinking?”

But I wasn’t the only one suffering from the leader’s requests.

They started to ignore the leader, drinking beer or staring at a random patch on the wall, starting existential ponderings.

The leader muttered, feeling unjust, “What, wasn’t I the leader?”

“You are still the leader. Just lost our trust.”

I retorted and looked down at the ledger again.

“If you have nothing to do, go upstairs and handle the paperwork. We have a lot of piled up work.”

And I was on the verge of diving back into the hell of numbers.

“Oh, this time it’s real! It’s a request from the Hero Party!”

Finally, I opened my eyes wide and looked up at the leader.

“The Hero Party?”

***

If there is one highly popular profession in this wretched fantasy world, it would be adventurers.

The empire’s administrative power is still lacking, and wretched things happen almost every second in this world.

Goblins, orcs, dark sorcerers, demons, monsters, and so on…

It’s difficult to solve these problems with an army, not to mention the inefficiency and the fact that high-ranking individuals don’t really care unless it’s a major issue.

However, to people like us ordinary folks, it is a real threat, and sometimes a small threat can grow into a problem that threatens the entire country.

That’s why adventurers have emerged.

They are temporary organizations that deal with the various problems that occur sporadically within the Ea Continent.

It is unclear who started it first.

When I regained consciousness, there was already a fairly prosperous group called the Adventurers Guild, and if you were an unemployed person with intact limbs and nothing to do, whether voluntary or involuntary, you would find yourself going to the Adventurers Guild with an old sword in hand.

And unsurprisingly, the Empire welcomed this situation with open arms.

They even selected exceptional individuals among the adventurers and hired them, giving them the honorary title named after heroes who had defeated the Demon King in the past.

Heroes.

“It seems the captain has brought proper work this time.”

The sound of the bugle, followed by Pea’s voice, interrupted my thoughts.

“I don’t know about that.”

I responded with a negative reaction, furrowing my brow.

“Well, who knows. There might be someone pretending to be a hero.”

“Hey, brother, don’t you know that we cut off the necks of those who pretend to be heroes? You worry too much, brother.”

Pea patted my shoulder, adding on.

“Besides, the captain should know more about heroes than us, right? After all, he has blue blood flowing through his veins.”

“That’s true, but…”

I have to be able to trust the captain…

I swallowed the words that were about to come out unconsciously.

It has already been five years since I started working with the captain, and if I were to judge based on like or dislike, he would be someone I like…

But honestly, he is not a trustworthy person.

Especially when it comes to mercenary work.

As I was considering various thoughts,

Ting-

Suddenly, my vision was engulfed in darkness.

“Ah, not this again!”

Damn it. The voice output device broke again.

“Are you okay, brother? Should I get a spare gemstone?”

“Ah, %@$^%@^”

I tried to speak with the broken voice output device, but I just shook my hand. Then, I tapped my head a few times with my hand.

After my vision flickered a few times, it regained color, although slightly shaky.

“Ah, ah. Can you hear me?”

“Yes, brother, I can hear you just fine.”

“Damn it, I need to get this fixed soon.”

I grumbled, tapping my head a few more times.

Fae looked at me uncomfortably, then finally spoke bluntly.

“How about just going to a priest for treatment?”

“What for?”

“Your eyes, tongue, hands, legs… well, everything else too. Isn’t relying solely on magic tools limited?”

I glanced at Fae as if they were pathetic.

“Where’s the money for that?”

“Don’t you have anything saved up?”

“It’s all gone into gemstones, and do you even know how much it costs to restore your missing parts?”

“…What do you mean by missing parts?”

“Forget it, why am I even talking to Derin’s apprentice.”

I sighed and gazed out the window.

As the carriage stopped, the coachman announced our arrival. I moved my creaking leg and followed Fae out of the carriage.

And there, a splendid inn greeted us.

“Ah… as expected, an inn where high-ranking officials stay is different, isn’t it? Shouldn’t we consider renting a building like this? Instead of some shabby inn?”

“If you lot drank a little less, maybe then you could think about it.”

I roughly retorted to Fae’s nonsense and entered the inn. Inside, the upscale inn seemed different, with neatly dressed attendants welcoming us.

As I mentioned meeting a warrior party, they agreed to check and left us.

Glancing around, something came to mind, so I looked at Fae.

“Oh, right. Kid, you wait here.”

“Huh? Why all of a sudden?”

“I heard there might be a cleric in the warrior party.”

While there’s one god of the clergy, Derin has many. It’s needless to say that their relationship isn’t great.

Some of the empire’s people call Derinians savages and disrespect them.

Fae’s lips pouted as if understanding my words.

“These days, there are clergy who don’t discriminate against Derinians.”

“But most are biased. It’s not good to start off on a bad note with the client, accumulating ill feelings for no reason.”

“I’m your right hand, though.”

“My right hand is detachable.”

I casually brushed off her nonsense and loosely handed her a few silver coins.

“I’ll be out in a moment, so go outside and get something to eat. Got it?”

After a brief silence, Phea reluctantly nodded.

Then, at the right moment, the female guide reappeared as if on cue. Following her offer to guide the warrior party, I moved my steps upstairs in the inn.

“She’s waiting here.”

Leaving me with those words, the guide left me in front of an elegant door.

Before grabbing the doorknob and entering, I hesitated for a moment about whether to wear a mask.

A face adorned with artificial eyeballs. Even with empty words, it’s challenging to win someone’s favor on a first meeting.

However, I soon decided to abandon the idea.

After all, the contract had already been signed, and today’s purpose was just to discuss the commission fees briefly.

Additional costs, performance bonuses, meal expenses, and so on.

As a so-called warrior, I wouldn’t act stingy with money.

With that thought in mind, I opened the door.

“Uh…?”

And I made a surprised sound as I discovered faces I hadn’t expected.

A girl caught red-handed reading a book on the sofa.

A silver-haired woman in white robes.

And a blonde woman sharpening a knife.

They had changed a lot, but I could still recognize them.

No, I couldn’t not recognize them.

Even though we had parted ways due to circumstances, they were among the few friends in my life.

Feeling a deep sense of joy welling up from within, I opened my mouth.

“Hey, it’s been a long time…”

“Wueeek!!”

And the warrior, or rather, Amy, began to retch.

Huh?

“…!”

“Haah… Haah…!”

It wasn’t just Amy who showed a strange reaction.

The prospective saint, Clara, suddenly clutched her chest, began to breathe heavily with a pale face, and

The wizard, Parsley, turned pale and rushed out of the room.

I stared blankly at the group of panicked warrior party members and my friends who were causing a commotion.

What is this…?

***

The sudden chaos was resolved when a woman, who was a member of the warrior party’s baggage team, appeared and chased me away.

Bewildered and frozen, she asked me to leave today and promised to contact me later.

In the face of her request, I had no choice but to return like a bewildered mercenary.

I was so confused at that time that I even left Phehmar behind in the city.

And now, two days have passed since then.

I was sprawled on the sofa in the mercenary group’s living room like a rag.

My boots and gauntlets had long been discarded and were rolling on the floor, and the voice modulator was rolling on the table.

I looked up at the ceiling with a narrowed field of vision and thought.

Why did they react like that?

Of course, yeah, we didn’t part on such good terms.

More accurately, regardless of good or bad, we abruptly parted without even saying goodbye.

But still, such disgust!

I was engulfed in a feeling that made it hard to speak because I was so excited.

After 18 years, or maybe 13 years, or perhaps 7 years, it was a friend I met, and I could at least pretend to be glad.

Could it be that they now consider themselves warriors and don’t want to mix with a mere lieutenant of a small mercenary group?

I stood up abruptly from my seat and then collapsed back onto the sofa.

Perhaps I am thinking too negatively.

There might be a reason to feel disgusted.

Maybe they have some illness, or the food didn’t agree…

“Captain, I’ve never seen our lieutenant grovel like that before.”

“Yeah, it’s the first time I’ve seen the Lieutenant act that way.”

“Is it okay to leave that good for nothing sword?”

“Well, let’s leave it for now. If our guys get caught fighting in a bar, they’ll wake up swearing.”

“Hey, if you have something to say, come and say it instead of whispering over there.”

I barely put on my gauntlets and put the voice modulator around my neck and said.

The Captain and Pheh, who were whispering from a distance, scratched their heads elegantly and approached me, asking.

“So, what happened?”

“I don’t know either. Suddenly, they saw my face…”

I pretended to retch.

“No, no, I’ve heard that part already.”

“?”

The captain nodded, throwing the fallen gloves towards me.

“What’s the connection with those warrior party members? There must have been some relationship for such a thing to happen.”

“Oh, I’m curious about that too. It didn’t seem like your first encounter with the warrior party members, how do you know them, Sir Knight?”

Fea, too, stared at me with curious, sparkling eyes. I reattached the gloves and boots, appearing bewildered.

“Well, they were just people I had a friendship with in the past.”

“All of them? Were you in the same party with all of them back in the day?”

“Sir, did you used to be an adventurer in the past?”

“No, it’s not like that…”

I tightened the boots firmly one last time and replied.

“Well… How do I say this? Seeing those three together was also a first for me. They were people I accidentally met and befriended when I was young.”

“So, you’re saying the four of you never traveled together?”

“Yes, one was a neighborhood friend, one was a schoolmate, and one was a colleague from work.”

Saying so, I stood up from my seat.

That was when Fea suddenly approached me and looked at me intently with a serious expression.

“I want to hear, Sir, about your old stories.”

“It’s not particularly interesting.”

I pushed Fea’s face away as it came too close. However, Fea persisted, tensing their neck muscles.

“I still want to hear!”

“I said it’s not interesting. Besides, it’s a long story.”

I finally managed to push Fea’s face away and looked at the captain.

“So, what happened? Was the contract terminated because of me?”

“I don’t know, haven’t heard from them yet.”

The captain shrugged. I awkwardly rubbed my neck and avoided the captain’s gaze.

“If, by any chance, something like that happens… I’ll take responsibility somehow.”

It wasn’t just an empty promise.

I don’t know the exact reason, but it is clear that this is a disturbance stemming from my personal issues.

If this jeopardizes the request, I must find a way to resolve it.

“Well, forget it.”

Of course, this person would react like this.

The commander shrugged his shoulders.

“Honestly, we are no longer an anonymous mercenary group, and we are not only hired for hero parties.”

“Still…”

“And, I’ve been on requests before, so it’s nothing new.”

Those words brought back gloomy memories of the past.

The incident where the commander punched the client in the face… the incident where Faye cut off the arm of the escort target… the incident where our kids were caught having a drinking party in the allied supply depot…

…should we just disband the mercenary group, seriously?

“Anyway, let’s get to work, Vice Commander. Just sitting around won’t earn us any money, you know?”

The commander, seeming unstoppable in his energetic tone, lightly tapped my shoulder. I sighed and nodded my head.

Suddenly, one of our members rushed towards us with an anxious expression.

“V-Vice, Vice Commander…!”

I looked at him with a puzzled expression. After catching his breath for a moment, he spoke with an uneasy expression.

“A person claiming to be a porter for the hero party has come…”

I raised an eyebrow.