An inn tucked into an alley a short distance from the one where Martin had stayed. I looked it over, tilting my head. Its sign was freshly painted, its walls clean, and the smell of soft bread drifted out from inside.

'It is an inn, but...' It looked nothing like the hotels from my previous life. It was more like an inn straight out of a fantasy novel. The inns I'd seen so far had been thoroughly realistic places, with mercenaries brawling and food smeared everywhere. This one felt strange.

That feeling persisted when I went in. The ground-floor dining room was clean, and even the servers carrying food were neatly dressed. Yet there didn't seem to be many guests staying at such a nice inn. 'Why is it so empty when it's this good?'

I glanced around in puzzlement, then asked a passing waitress, "Is someone called the 'Firebird Hunter' staying here?" Firebird Hunter? Why did her nickname have to be so childish? I couldn't keep my face from reddening even as I said it.

The waitress gave me an amused look. "You're not just any little kid, are you? She's here now. Shall I call her?" Fortunately, she was at the inn. "Yes, please."

"Dad! Someone's here! Call the Firebird down!" she shouted toward the back, then showed me to an empty table. Apparently, the nickname wasn't as odd as I'd thought. The waitress—or rather, the innkeeper's daughter—smiled kindly and handed me a menu. "Well, if you're the Firebird's guest, there's nothing to worry about... What would you like?"

I didn't understand what she meant, but before I could ponder it, the menu gave me a shock. 'Why is everything so expensive?' Even I, who had never wanted for anything, was startled by the prices. No wonder there were so few guests. If the rooms cost this much too, any ordinary mercenary who wasn't a noble would turn and run. 'It's like putting a five-star hotel in the middle of a marketplace.'

Still, that wasn't my problem. "If you have whatever the Firebird Hunter usually eats, two servings of that, please." "Good choice. It won't be too much for the Firebird, either." Ah. Did she think the woman would pay for our meals instead of me? Well, fair enough.

I'd taken off the hood over my head, but I still wore my cloak. She couldn't know how fine my clothes were underneath it. And I'd wrapped the sword the marquis had just given me in layers of cloth and dragged it here so no one would recognize it. I must have looked like a little errand boy hauling luggage. Now I understood why she'd looked at me so strangely. 'I suppose I'm lucky she didn't throw me out.'

As I thought that, I heard footsteps on the stairs. I turned to see a woman coming down. She had short red hair and a somewhat androgynous look. Quite handsome, in fact. She walked straight toward me.

'So that's what the cloaked mercenary looks like.' Her appearance suited her husky voice, but she didn't have the sturdy look I'd first imagined. She seemed more like a slender knight or a handsome clerk than a rugged mercenary. Then again, perhaps that was only natural since she was a woman.

"You're a little late. Still, your timing's good. Things are getting noisy in this domain, and I was thinking of heading elsewhere." She sat across from me and waved to the waitress. "I ordered two servings of whatever the Firebird... Hunter usually has." "Good thinking. Ha ha, it's a strange nickname, isn't it? There are plenty stranger than mine, though."

"What's wrong with 'Firebird'? They say my dad was called Bigfoot Greatsword when he was young." The waitress said this as she set down our food. Hmm. Bigfoot Greatsword. An impressively straightforward nickname. I felt as though I could find the man just by hearing it.

"Oh, then Firebird Hunter is..." I looked at the red hair of the woman across from me. "It's a perfect name, isn't it? When you see that red hair, you can't think of anything else." The waitress shrugged. It seemed she was the one who'd come up with the nickname.

'She's been using a nickname an inn waitress gave her after she came to this domain?' That meant either she hadn't used one before, or she'd hidden her old one. 'Does this woman have a secret too?' I couldn't help sighing. Why was no one I met ever ordinary?

The food looked delicious. The warm stew, bread, and meat didn't seem much different from what I'd eaten in the lord's castle or at the mansion. With the food before us, the Firebird... stared at me. Oh, I hadn't introduced myself. I had no nickname, and this was hardly the time to give one. So I told her my name. "I'm Alex de Gresia."

She tilted her head. "You're a noble?" "Half a noble. I'm an illegitimate son." "Aha. So that's why. Now I get it."

She wasn't particularly surprised that I was a noble, and learning I was illegitimate didn't change the way she treated me. Most mercenaries would at least have been startled or started speaking more politely. I'd sensed it when we first met: she couldn't hide what she thought. She didn't flinch at a noble or look down on an illegitimate son. 'Is she an unusually open-minded noble? Or does she have a position—or skills—that make her untouchable to nobles?' Judging by how easily she'd handled the mercenary Noah, her skills were beyond reproach.

After hearing my name, she picked up some bread and dipped it into the stew. Then she looked at me in surprise. "Oh, wait. Weren't the nobles visiting here from House Gresia, the duke's family?" Rumors spread more slowly than they had in my previous life, after all. Or perhaps she'd been slow to put it together. "That's right. I came with them."

Instead of lifting the bread from the stew, she pressed a hand to her head. "What the hell is going on?" What else? Something she'd been watching from afar had landed right at her feet.

"There are rumors that a bunch of mercenaries attacked the marquis's house and got themselves massacred, and soldiers are scouring the streets outside." She pointed at me. "And the kid running from a mercenary that night was a guest of the marquis's family. If the rumors are true, I got into a fight with the very mercenaries who attacked the marquis's house to save you?" Her face twisted.

"Don't tell me the girl with you was a noble too?" "She was the marquis's daughter. The one who's getting engaged." She stared at me blankly. As she did, her bread sank into the stew.

That bread was a lost cause. Feeling it was a waste, I picked up some of my own, dipped it in the stew as she had, and tried it. Oh, it was delicious. Watching me eat brought her back to her senses. She looked at where her bread had vanished beneath the stew and sighed.

"I'm screwed. This isn't the time to take it easy. From the look of things, I'm mixed up in this far more than I thought." She certainly was. If anyone who knew about it came forward, the surviving mercenaries and the soldiers would surely come looking for her. I hadn't asked for her help; she'd gotten involved by sticking her nose in.

"Let me pay for this meal to thank you for helping me." "Oh, you don't have to. It's not that expen... No, thank you." Good grief. She must have remembered at the last second that she was a mercenary. At any rate, she didn't consider even a meal like this expensive. That was one more thing I'd learned.

"What on earth happened? No, never mind. Better not to hear it. It's noble business. The more I learn, the more trouble I'll have." She was right. There was a great deal of trouble. "More importantly, where should I go?" "You have nowhere to go?" "I didn't expect to have to leave in such a hurry." Oh? This might be easier than I thought.

"Then how about coming to the Duke of Gresia's domain?" "Huh? Are you inviting me to the duke's household?" "No. An illegitimate son like me couldn't do that. I'm only suggesting it as your next destination." She shook her head. So much for an easy solution. "It's too far. Besides, I haven't chosen anywhere in particular to go, but I can't just wander at random. There's something I need to find along the way."

As she spoke, she stroked the sword propped against the table. Something to find, and a sword... Hmm. Worth a try. "Does what you're looking for have something to do with that sword?" She flinched. I didn't need an answer; her reaction said it all.

"Then I may be able to help. I don't remember it clearly, but I've seen the emblem engraved on that sword back in the domain. It was a bird taking flight, wasn't it?" Excitement lit her face as she drew the sword halfway. I saw the engraved bird taking flight on its blade, checked the emblem, and nodded. "That's the one." She grew even more excited.

"I'll pack up and follow you as soon as I can. How do I contact you when I arrive? Can you tell me roughly where you saw it? Was it on an object? Or a wall? It wasn't a book, was it?" It had worked so well it was almost frightening. Still, she soon regained her composure and immediately called the waitress over. "I'm checking out! I'll leave tomorrow!" "What? It's a large amount, so I can't refund tomorrow's room charge."

Wait, this inn gave refunds? And how many days had she booked for the sum to be too large to refund? "I don't need the money back." "What? Really?" The waitress's face lit up. Just how much money was it? Her expression soon fell, though.

"I can't take that from you," said a man emerging from the back. "I'll put it on your account. Collect it next time you come, or stay for that many days free." "Dad!" the waitress shrieked. He was a sturdy middle-aged man, exactly the sort you'd expect to find in a novel about a once-famous mercenary who had grown old and opened an inn. But his hands and the muscles on his body looked more like a knight's than a mercenary's.

He and the Firebird Hunter seemed to have known each other for a long time. I watched her talking with the innkeeper. Her face made her age hard to guess, but I'd thought she couldn't be older than her twenties. Was she older than I'd expected?

While she skipped her meal and bustled about packing, I calmly finished mine. It was well worth the price. After making arrangements with the Firebird Hunter, I left the inn.

A sign swung above the entrance: <Mercenary's Rest>. The inn's name was perfectly ordinary, but the place itself was anything but. No. No. If I let it bother me, I'd lose. It was just a nice, expensive inn. I wouldn't be coming back, and there was no reason to create more trouble for myself by prying.

Not long after I left, though, I ran into unfinished business. "I really didn't think you'd be an actual child." The female mercenary named Noah had blocked my path once again.