1.
The day of Nahan, the captain of <Black Wolf>, was surprisingly peaceful, considering their D-rank status.
First of all.
“…Finally done.”
Sorting recyclables.
By the time I’ve emptied the grotesque trash bins, the team members who went out for early morning training have returned.
“Captain!!”
“It’s-finished─sir.”
Thinking of the maggots swarming in the trash and the smell, I feel like smacking someone, but—
“Praise us, Captain!”
“We’d-like-that─sir.”
When I see the team’s faces shining with foolish brightness, my anger melts away.
Whether I like it or not, we’ll be together until those 12 bad endings are prevented. I nodded as I served them food.
“…Well done.”
“Wow! Did you see that, Han-Ryang!? The Captain praised me and only me!”
“Overruled. It-was-for-me─sir.”
See? Even a half-hearted compliment like that makes them ridiculously happy.
Of course, after tossing out a compliment like this—
“…Oh, really? Then let’s see if you’re up for it. How about we revisit the rankings?”
“Luna. Easy-for-me─sir.”
“You little—!!”
They immediately start a pointless fight. I press down on their shoulders and speak up.
“Both of you, stop and sit down.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Understood─sir.”
Good, they listen well.
After this nonsensical praise and their squabble, I mediate again, and as the meal begins, she comes down from the second floor.
“You’re noisy so early in the morning.”
The voice, so benevolent yet chilling due to its ambiance, stops us in our tracks.
Tap.
The woman, who has now descended the last step of the stairs, glances at the table and smiles.
“With the Captain present, how dare you?”
Snow-white silver hair glimmering like starlight.
Golden eyes sparkling like treasure.
A crimson longsword resting on her back.
‘Lactea, Vice-Captain of <Black Wolf>.’
Though it’s been a month since I found myself in this body, I still haven’t grown accustomed to her extraordinary beauty.
Anyway, her arrival usually signals that she’s about to reprimand the team, so I pull out another chair and quickly speak.
“I’m fine, so come and sit down.”
“Yes, Captain.”
Unlike the other members, Lactea follows my orders without hesitation, and with her arrival, the <Black Wolf> Mercenary Corps’ meal officially begins.
The meal consists of watery soup with a few scraps of meat and hard bread, but—
“Wow, Captain! Your cooking is amazing!”
“Agreed─sir.”
Luna and Han-Ryang devour their food like they’ve been starving for days, and even the usually stoic Lactea raises an eyebrow as she eats.
“Captain, how on earth did you make this?”
“I’ve told you before—cook the meat, hard vegetables, and soft vegetables in order, then boil it. Timing is everything.”
If you take your time and tackle things step by step, there’s nothing you can’t achieve.
Just as I, an ordinary 25-year-old Korean man who finished his military service, am somehow surviving as the captain of a mercenary corps.
But Lactea, still unconvinced, takes a cautious sip of the soup and asks,
“Even so, when I followed your method, it didn’t taste like this.”
“That’s because you just did exactly as I said, Lactea.”
She had thrown the meat, hard vegetables, and soft vegetables directly onto the campfire, then dumped the entire thing into a pot to boil.
“…Ugh.”
“Captain?”
“Ah, no, just try this too, Lactea.”
“Thank you.”
The memory of that taste makes me gag, but I manage to shake it off and ask,
“By the way, is the request Red gave us still the same?”
Red.
The branch manager of the <Babylonia> Mercenary Alliance in the Empire.
-Wow, the mission paper is orange!
-It’s an A-Rank request.
-Why the hell are you giving it to us?
-Oh, don’t worry. It’s nothing. Just assassinate a cult leader. Oh, by the way, most of their members are B-Rank, so be careful.
She’s the insane woman who handed an A-Rank request to our D-Rank mercenary corps.
-Ha! Like I’m crazy enough to accept that!!
-…That’s odd. Are you really Nahan?
-What kind of fool wouldn’t take such a prestigious mission? We’ll take it. <Black Wolf> is on the move.
Since she seemed to have a personal connection with the <Black Wolf>, I accepted the request to avoid raising suspicion about my identity.
“Still, it’s better to reject it, right?”
Flinch.
The moment I finish my sentence, all three of them stop eating and look up.
“Well, um…”
“Luna. Keep-quiet─.”
Excluding Lactea, the other two members glanced at her nervously. After a brief silence, Lactea slowly bowed her head.
“I apologize, Captain.”
“Hmm?”
“I should have handled this earlier so you wouldn’t have to worry. I’m sorry for troubling you.”
“Oh.”
It dawned on me.
‘She’s apologizing for not rejecting the request before I had to say anything.’
She had a point. It wouldn’t look good if I, the captain of the <Black Wolf> Mercenary Corps, went in person to say, “We’re too incompetent to handle this request.”
Since it wasn’t entirely her fault, I chuckled and lightly patted her shoulder as she kept her head bowed.
“It’s fine. Just take care of it properly.”
Yet, she and the other members continued to look at me in silence before Lactea cautiously asked.
“Captain, shall we go handle it this time as well?”
“We-can-handle-it─.”
These guys.
They were practically salivating over the prospect of what they thought was a simple task: just returning the request slip.
‘…But since that cunning Red is involved in this one…’
I decided Lactea would be more reliable than the dimwitted Luna and Han-Ryang.
After coming to a decision, I shifted my gaze from the two to Lactea and whispered.
“Be careful, and come back safe.”
And in the next moment—
“…Yes, Captain.”
Lactea smiled.
“I’ll be back shortly.”
It was the most radiant and beautiful smile she’d shown me yet.
2.
A dimly lit underground chamber.
The space was illuminated by only a few candles, yet over a hundred people were present.
Fortunately, no hostages had gathered yet.
Of course, even if there had been hostages.
“…This is such a simple task—just cleaning out these pests—and yet the mission slip is orange.”
It wouldn’t have mattered to the White Blade Ghost, a top-class wanted criminal in the Babylonia Empire.
“The Empire struggles with even trivial matters like this, which makes it tempting to aim higher. You know, just kill the Empress and be done with it.”
Click.
The White Blade Ghost strapped the sheath of her long sword, previously slung on her back, to her waist.
“Still, don’t worry. Since I was asked to wait, I’ll wait.”
Tap, Tap, Tap.
“By the Captain’s side, forever.”
The sound of her heels echoed throughout the cave, carrying into the depths.
At the entrance to the cult leader’s chamber, two guards stood on watch.
The younger guard frowned and muttered under his breath.
“…Senior, isn’t that a woman?”
“Where? Where, you little punk?!”
“Over there, near the entrance.”
“Wow… Hey, don’t report this. I’ll handle it myself.”
Even in the dim lighting, her silhouette was unmistakably beautiful, captivating the senior guard. He strode toward her with ill intentions.
‘She’s probably one of the cult members. Maybe I can have some fun with her before handing her over to the leader… All I need is to get this annoyingly upright rookie to look the other way.’
Now standing directly in front of the woman, the guard raised his hand arrogantly, smirking.
“Hey, are you lost? I can—”
Slash!
“—Huh?”
The senior guard’s vision spun, his surroundings twisting and lowering rapidly as his body crumpled to the ground.
Even in his disoriented state, he could clearly see two things: the radiant, pure-white aura glowing intensely around the blade, and the fiery red light flickering ominously in her eyes.
“The request was to assassinate the cult leader, wasn’t it?”
“…”
“Pfft! Sorry for killing first and asking questions later. Not that I was expecting an answer anyway.”
It was only at that moment that the man fully realized.
‘…This is the end.’
Not just for him, but for everyone in this place.
“And Red has been irritating me lately. No matter how much of a disguise it was, she was far too disrespectful to the Captain.”
Everyone associated with this will die.
Thud.
With that, the severed head fell to the ground.
“Well, since there won’t be any witnesses, I can just deny it if necessary.”
Boom!
Using that as a signal, the White Blade Ghost dashed forward. In just a few seconds, she swept through the entire area.
“Cult leader?”
“P-please… huff… just spare my life…”
“Oh, you’re still alive. That’s great. By the way, where do you dispose of trash here?”
“…? O-over there.”
Slash.
Thud.
“Thank you. I’ll make sure to clean up thoroughly before I leave.”
Even the recycling was handled perfectly.
3.
It had been an hour since Lactea departed.
“Luna is taking a nap, and Han-Ryang is meditating in the cave… That should give me about three hours, right? Perfect timing.”
After checking my surroundings one last time, I quietly opened the main quest window.
─『Main Quest』─
◆ Just survive.
: Prevent all bad endings and save the <Hero> and the <Empress>.
◆ Bad endings prevented so far:
: Current count… [3 / 15]
◆ Reward:
: Return to your original world.
The status window still emitted its pale glow, unchanged.
Like any other day, I went about my daily routine, waiting for another bad ending to be averted. Unfortunately, there were no significant gains today.
“Right, three have been cleared so far.”
Noticing the increase in the <Bad Endings Prevented> count, I opened the information window.
【At the request of the Savior – <Nahan>, the system displays information on the specified individual!】
【Name: Nahan】
– Alias: Incompetent Mercenary Captain (Temporary)
– Rank: C-rank Mercenary (Temporary)
– Info: Sold to the underworld by his impoverished parents during childhood. [Somehow] managed to scrape by and eventually rise to become the leader of the D-rank mercenary corps, the <Black Wolf>.
【Number of bad endings to be prevented before next information unlock… [3 / 3] (Condition Met!).】
When Luna and Han-Ryang were out for early training, a new window had popped up:
-Who the hell spits chewed-up meat into the trash… Ugh!! Seriously, is sorting recyclables that hard?
Distracted by the horrendous state of the trash, I had accidentally skipped it.
Fortunately, the system in this world responded even to vague commands, so I hesitated briefly before speaking.
“Um… …. <Reopen information>?”
【Request to reopen information denied.】
【To reopen, you must prevent a total of <5> bad endings.】
Rejected.
‘Some information must have a time limit.’
Though it was disappointing, it was still a new discovery about how the system worked.
“Oh, do I just need to touch it?”
I extended my finger to the information window to unlock the rest of my details.
Tap.
As expected, the screen reacted.
【<New information> and <Skills> about <Nahan> are unlocked!】
【Progress: …1%】
The pale letters on the translucent system window shifted as a faint light danced across the screen.
“This is going to take a while.”
Annoyed at the slow progress, I wondered if I should start doing the piled-up laundry when—
Bang!
The door to the <Black Wolf Mercenary Corps> base slammed open as someone stormed in.
“Captain, have you finally lost your mind?!”
“…Huh?”
Fiery red hair.
Eyes like polished rubies.
Slightly tanned, flawless skin.
“You were only supposed to kill the bishop! Why did you wipe out the entire cult?!”
“Me?”
Her name was Ruby Red.
The branch manager of the <Babylonia> Mercenary Alliance in the Empire.
…But.
“Thanks to you, all the corrupt nobles’ funding lines are cut off!”
Why is she calling me Captain?
.
.
.
【<Black Wolf Mercenary Corps>】
– Alias: Incompetent Mercenary Corps (Temporary), Trash Heap (Temporary), Mercenary Kindergarten (Temporary)
– Rank: D (Temporary)
– Members:
◆ Captain: <Nahan – ???>
◆ Vice-Captain: <Lactea – White Blade Ghost>
◆ No.1: <???>
◆ No.2: <???>
◆ No.3: <Han-Ryang – Tal>
◆ No.4: <Luna – Persona>
◆ No.5: <???>
.
.
.
◆ No.6: <Ruby Red – ???> (New!)
