Chapter 137: Perseus (29)
The mercenary group named Mimyeong (魅冥) was quite famous.
They were cruel, sharp, and never picky about the jobs they accepted.
This was the complete opposite of typical well-known mercenary groups that only took contracts matching their value.
Yet no one dared look down on them for two reasons: first, the sheer combat prowess of their leader Alexis, and second, the group of witches within Mimyeong known as Cheongye (淸穢).
“So, you sensed our trap being destroyed?”
“Yes. It disappeared from the map.”
“Hmm…”
Alexis, the leader of Mimyeong, frowned in thought.
If someone could destroy the traps they had scattered across the island, that person was undoubtedly a major threat to them now.
Those traps had been made with the help of an ethnos-level witch.
It was a rare advantage they gained thanks to having a half-witch among them.
“But to destroy something like that…”
It meant one of two things.
Either the person was stronger than the witch who created the trap, or they possessed some special ability.
Both possibilities were extremely troublesome.
It wasn’t enough to make Mimyeong cower in fear, but if things went wrong, they might fail the contract entirely.
“Philomela, what do you think? That trap was one you brought in, after all.”
At Alexis’s question, Philomela—the half-elf, half-witch who was attending the meeting—slowly opened her half-closed eyes and looked at him.
Then she answered in her usual calm, elegant voice:
“My master once said this: the day that trap is destroyed, the mercenary group will face a moment of choice. Whether Alexis will fulfill his desire… or be destroyed.”
“…….”
A heavy silence fell over the tent of Mimyeong’s executive meeting.
It was the silent outpouring of emotions—some fearing the witch’s prophecy, others facing the possibility of finally achieving their long-held desire.
Especially Alexis, the leader, remained completely expressionless.
Everything they had done so far—taking on any job without shame—had a clear purpose.
Yet the sudden arrival of this opportunity was something only he could judge.
“To achieve our goal… Is that certain, Philomela? Are we finally getting the chance to have our own land?”
Alexis asked again in a low, sunken voice.
Mimyeong had lived without shame until now. It was the only way for those abandoned and rejected by the world to survive.
Vile, cowardly, cunning.
Despite his striking red hair and handsome features, Alexis was born from a nobleman’s rape of a maidservant.
The same went for the witch group Cheongye led by Philomela.
They called themselves witches, but they were simply beggars, prostitutes, illegitimate children of nobles or priests—anyone who could use even the slightest bit of magic.
There were only two or three true witches among them, with Philomela at the head.
The rest of the executives inside the tent had similar backgrounds.
Some were born without arms, others suffered from rotting flesh diseases, some carried monster bloodlines, and some had been abandoned with incurable illnesses.
What this mercenary group desired was one thing: their own land. And their own nation.
Their hope lay in the prophecy of the great witch, and now the prophesied moment of choice had finally arrived.
“I cannot say with certainty. But since it is the foresight of the great witch, there is at least a minimum level of reliability.”
“…….”
Philomela’s answer was far from confident, but Alexis made his decision.
They would go meet them first. In the end, all choices had to be made by seeing and feeling for themselves.
“Everyone, prepare. We’re going to meet them personally.”
“Yes!!!”
***
Thus, Perseus and Mimyeong finally faced each other.
Perseus gripped the Harpe he received from Athena tightly, his face tense.
Normally he wouldn’t use a divine weapon against fellow humans, but with his current abilities, unlike during the Diogenes fight, he had no confidence he could defeat them.
The Mimyeong mercenary group before him was far more organized, and his senses told him they were skilled at hunting people.
‘Even with Njord here, I still need to be careful. With that many people, they could surround and hunt both of us.’
Just as tense as Perseus was Alexis, staring at him with equal nervousness.
He couldn’t tell which god’s priest this was, but one thing was clear—it was a powerful one.
Every sense in his body—as an arkon-level warrior—was on high alert.
As a warrior who had reached arkon-level (leader/ruler tier), he was equivalent to a polis-level mage.
‘Which god is backing him? Athena? Or Ares?’
Alexis couldn’t think of other gods while looking at Perseus holding the sword.
The way he gripped it and his stance were far too natural.
Among priests of various gods, those who directly wielded weapons were most often from the two war gods.
In the plain filled with stone statues, a strange standoff unfolded between the two sides.
“…….”
“…….”
Amid the wind and the eerie sounds from deep within the garden, Perseus took the first step forward and shouted.
“I don’t know what your goal is, but we have no intention of fighting! We don’t want to waste strength on unnecessary conflict!”
In response to Perseus’s action, Alexis also stepped forward.
“Same here. But I want to make one thing clear. You never know—someone might stab us in the back.”
Perseus calmly observed the representative who had stepped forward.
From afar he had smelled rotten water, but up close he realized it was slightly different.
More precisely, it was the smell of sick patients, rotting flesh, or untreatable wounded soldiers.
Mixed with the disposition of those who had lived harshly, it had misled Perseus’s senses.
‘This… is ambiguous. Not good, but not something that requires immediate distance either.’
After a moment of thought, Perseus stepped forward again and shouted at the one who had come out to meet them.
“My name is Perseus. I need the heads of the Gorgon sisters. And you?”
“Hm. I’m Alexis, leader of the Mimyeong mercenary group. I’ve also received a request for the heads of the Gorgon sisters.”
“All three of them?”
“No, just a part of their bodies. Some vain noble wants to show off his power.”
Perseus listened to Alexis, then briefly scanned the entire mercenary group before reaching one conclusion.
“I only need the heads of the Gorgon sisters. How about we cooperate? Our goals align, but what we want is different. Let’s work together until then!!”
“…….”
At Perseus’s proposal, Alexis glanced once more at Perseus and the mage behind him before nodding.
“If possible, let’s cooperate.”
“Yes. Then let’s negotiate first.”
***
The agreement was reached in an instant.
Thus, the mercenary group and Perseus began an awkward coexistence.
Perseus trusted his own senses, and Alexis trusted the great witch’s prophecy and his own eye for people—so the negotiation concluded quickly.
“So, you only need Medusa’s head?”
“Hm… To be precise, proof that I killed them is enough, but the clearest evidence is a Gorgon’s head.”
“I see. As I said, we don’t need the heads. We planned to fight the Gorgons a little and escape with just a part of their bodies anyway.”
“Huh? What do you mean?”
“You’re not a mercenary, so you probably don’t know, but skilled ones like us sometimes come here, fight the sisters a bit, and run away with a piece of their body. As I mentioned, nobles love that kind of thing.”
Perseus was speechless at Alexis’s words.
He never imagined such underhanded tricks were being pulled. But one thing puzzled him—given that, why were there so many stone statues in this plain…?
“Most of those are from old challengers or knights. If you look closely, there aren’t many mercenaries among the statues. As for ships… there are unofficial routes.”
“I see.”
Perseus and Alexis talked late into the night, getting to know each other somewhat.
Neither realized that this encounter would later become a turning point in Alexis’s fate—and lay the foundation for Perseus’s nation.
The next day dawned.
According to Alexis, there were currently four mercenary groups targeting the Gorgon sisters.
All of them, he said, had the same goal as his own.
“So you’re saying we should use those mercenaries as bait?”
“Yes. Usually, mercenaries who need to come to the Gorgon garden somehow coordinate their schedules.”
“And then they stab each other in the back in that unspoken agreement?”
“Exactly. That’s why we need to monitor them secretly.”
“And that’s our job.”
“Yes.”
“Can we trust these guys?”
“Hmm… By smell, they’re closer to gray, I’d say.”
Poseidon let out a sigh.
He had been suddenly needed and called in—only to be asked to do something as lowly as sneaking around and spying.
For a god, and someone pretending to be a great mage, it was an absurd request completely beneath him.
But.
“…Is this really what a great mage is supposed to do?”
Njord couldn’t refuse Perseus’s request.
He was looking at him with eyes like a father who would grant any wish…
He simply couldn’t say no.
‘Why do kids suddenly come to mind?’
—You agreed to it too, didn’t you? Then hurry up and go spy like a rat. Hehehe.
Leaving the mocking Atropos behind, Poseidon reluctantly cast his magic.
***
Above Poseidon, four sharks appeared, swimming through the air.
They glided like they were in water, soon heading off in different directions. At the same time, watery screens floated in the air inside the mercenary camp.
—Whoa…
—Impossible! Something like that exists?!
—I’ve never heard of or seen magic like that…
—Is there anyone among us who could do that?
—Probably not.
The camp briefly buzzed at Poseidon’s magic.
This degraded version of Hecate’s exclusive spell [Eyes of Huginn and Muninn] had no official name, but if forced, it could be called [Eyes of Poseidon].
Normally, spells were named after their creator.
From Poseidon’s perspective, it was far beneath Hecate’s original, so he hadn’t bothered naming it.
But to the mages and witches here, it was a tremendous shock.
Magic with no detectable aura, magical reaction, or mana flow was a dream technique for combat mages and mercenary mages.
Moreover, those with higher realms noticed something else.
The framework of this summoning magic folded space to conceal the familiars’ presence.
—Insane. How many different magics are combined into that one spell?
—Spatial magic, summoning, familiar magic, reconnaissance—at least those are clear.
—Broadly speaking, yes. But when you get into details, the sharks’ movements, spatial flow, and so on—there’s way too much to consider.
—So… does that mean the mage in front of us is ethnos-level? One of those rare great mages?
—Well… I’ve seen the great witch’s magic, but I don’t know if it reached this level.
After thoroughly shaking up the mages, Poseidon’s spell soon reached each of the four mercenary groups.
And screens appeared showing the four groups.
The noisy camp fell silent as the executives began focusing intently on every detail in the screens.
Experiencing a great mage’s magic was important, but far more urgent was achieving their own goal.
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