Moon Blossom Asura - Chapter 6: Do You Like Despair and Regret? No? Then Prepare Yourself Because You're About to Taste Them

Moon Blossom regrouped after taking out three of the four monster-tamer platoons. It was because neither the blue team nor the red looked for the fourth platoon.

“I was sure you would take out the remaining platoon.” Asura shrugged her shoulders in exasperation. 

“Sorry. Marx and Ina ran out of magic power.” Yuruki said.

“…You’re blaming me?…” Ina said.

“And you’re blaming me too. I don’t like this kind of commander.” Marx said. At Yuruki’s excuse, both Ina and Marx grimaced. 

“I’m not particularly upset,” Asura replied.

“I-I’m going to look for them now…” Yuruki said with a stiff expression, but Asura interrupted him, saying, “There’s no need for that.”

“They’ve probably already retreated. Can’t you tell from the state of the battlefield? They’re gone. I can think of several reasons for their retreat, but, well, it doesn’t matter.” They probably noticed the others were taken out one by one. Asura thought.

“…Actually, it was my mistake in judgment. I should have fought until Ina and Marx were completely drained.”

“Like I said, I’m not upset,” Asura reassured. “Our mission this time is based on commission. We don’t have to take them all out.”

“Ah, that’s right,” Yuruki said with relief on his face. “That’s completely right!”

“But who is that silver-haired guy? Explain to me why you dragged him here.” Marx was holding a silver-haired man’s ankle with his right hand.

“He appears to be a hero candidate. His name is Punti,” Marx said.

“He said he wanted to meet you, boss. So we brought him here just in case.”

“But…He’s an enemy soldier, so…If you’re okay with it boss, can I bully him to death…” Ina asked.

“You can’t,” Lumia said with a smile. “The battle is over, so from now on, it will be plain murder.”

“…I knew I should’ve killed him earlier…” Ina grumbled. But Lumia pretended not to hear her.

“Why does he want to meet me? If he wants to join, he’s welcome.　After all, my dream is to create a great mercenary group that will go down in history.” Asura said with a bright expression.

“No. he specifically denied that part,” Marx answered. “He said he wanted to fight you boss.”

“Then just throw him away. he’s useless, and there’s no need to kill him or give him to the Arnian army. Our free service period has ended.” Asura said puffing out her cheeks.

“Roger that.” Marx dropped Punti’s ankle.

“By the way, who’s the kid?” Yuruki asked.

“…Can I bully him to death,” Ina pleaded.

“The VC must’ve protected the villagers who failed to escape.” Marx reasoned.

Asura laughed while puffing out her chest. “This boy is Reko. He’s our new member.”

Asura patted Reko’s head with her right hand. Incidentally, her left arm was still broken. She plans to let Lumia heal her with recovery magic when they get back to the castle town. Lumia’s recovery magic can heal any injury or illness. However, it takes a very long time, so if it is a serious injury, you will die before it is healed.  

“Nice to meet you,” Reko said without being nervous. He had brown hair and a face that matched his age. He isn’t ugly, but he’s not good-looking either.

“Ah, nice to meet you. So you’re a new member…New member!? This kid!?” Yuruki said.

“…Boo…I can’t kill members of our group…” Ina said.

“Boss. You shouldn’t trick small children. Did you explain to him what kind of group Moon Blossom is, more importantly, what kind of person you are?”

“Marx, there’s no need for an explanation. He watched me and Lumia fight. Isn’t that enough?”

“…If he made his decision after watching you fight, then I have nothing more to say,” Marx said with a shrug.

“Well, we are not talking about putting him into actual combat yet. I’m going to train him from zero, in order to move on to the basic training process. I hope you will assist me.” When Asura mentioned basic training, Yuruki, Ina, and Marx’s faces scrunched up.

“Hey, Reko was it? The name’s Yuruki. I’m Moon Blossom’s best-looking guy. Welcome to hell.”

“…You’re unlucky to survive…I’m Ina, I’m Moon Blossom’s soothing character…Welcome to hell.”

“There’s no going back, now okay? Try not to regret it, will you? My name is Marx. A man who sees the romance in magic. Also, there are no soothing characters in Moon Blossom. Welcome to hell.”

***

Asura and her friends had rented out the same bar for dinner as yesterday. Today’s spread was not as fancy as yesterday’s, but the food itself was sumptuous.

“You can keep eating, but listen up,” Asura said.

Her left arm was bandaged with a brace and hung from her neck. She only asked for first aid from the medical unit of the Arnian army. It actually hurts badly and she wants to heal it with Lumia’s recovery magic as soon as possible.

“The reward this time is 150,000 Doras. Well, I haven’t gone to pick it up yet.” Asura said.

“Well, how much is that for each of us?”

Ina tried to count that with her fingers, but. “…Umm…I don’t have…Enough fingers…” She realized that humans don’t have 15 fingers.

“…You two are taking a crash course for our next break. I was so focused on combat training that I completely forgot to train your brains.”

“If you divide it among five people, it’s 30,000 Doras. How can you not understand? Are you stupid?” Reko said this while tilting his head.

“What did you say, you brat! Do you want to die!?”

“…He’s too cheeky, I’ll put sand in his boots…”

“Oh, are you the reason I’ve been finding sand in my boots lately? How about I give you a smacking later?”

“Shut up, all of you. we’re not gonna get far if you continue. If you don’t shut up, I’m going to shove a stick up your ass and poke around.” At Asura’s threat, everyone fell silent. All three of them remember being poked and prodded during their torture training, and no one is looking to reexperience that. 

“Okay back on topic, can the four of you split 80,000 Dora between you?” Asura asked.

“Boss, are you planning on buying Salume with the remaining 70,000 Dora?”

“Yes, that’s right, Markus. If it’s okay with you guys.” As expected, Marx can calculate in his head and guess the reason. It’s not surprising though, they don’t let idiots join the knight’s order.

“I don’t mind,” Yuruki said. ” I’m interested in the boss’s dream of increasing the member count and creating a great mercenary group that will go down in history.”

“…I don’t care either way…” Ina said.

“I’m against it. I don’t care about the money, but I don’t see why we should recruit a girl that has a decent life.”

“Don’t worry Marx, if Salume says she doesn’t want to join, then this conversation never happened,” Asura replied with a shrug.

“If you’re gonna respect Salume’s will, then I have nothing more to say.”

“Good. What about you Lumia?”

“I’m for it,” Lumia said. “I think it would be better to have a partner for Reko. Going through your basic training alone is difficult, to say the least. Having a partner that’s going through it with you to lean on is important.”

Yuruki, Ina, and Marx all nodded deeply at Lumia’s statement. When Asura started the group, she first gathered all four of them before putting them through her basic training.

“Good. Then tomorrow, I’ll take the money and go straight to buy Salume. You can take your time off. Enjoy your shopping. Ah, Reko, come with me.”

“Yes, boss.” Reko nodded obediently.

“Well then, everyone has stopped eating after all. let’s finish our food and go back to the inn and…”

“Excuse me!” Before Asura could finish, someone opened the door to the bar violently. Men entered inside slowly. A fat man with a smile was leading the group. He was dressed in expensive clothes and gaudy jewellery. Asura thought he was about 40 years old. behind him, three men of the police force of the Kingdom of Arnia followed. There were also three other men that looked like thugs. One of them had a mohawk chain in his hand.

And lastly. “Salume…” Asura muttered. The other end of the chain was around Salume’s neck. She was completely naked. And as if that wasn’t bad enough she was covered in bruises all over her body. 

“I have a business proposal for the mercenary group Moon Blossom.” The fat man said with a nasty smile. “I’m the merchant Uno Hassinen. Pleased to make your acquaintance.” 

“I’m Asura Lyona, leader of Moon Blossom. What kind of business do you wish to discuss?” Well, it’s pretty obvious what he’s here for. Uno snapped his fingers and the man with the mohawk roughly pulled on Salume’s chain to get her to stand next to Uno.

“I did hear that the leader is a young lady. But I never thought the rumours were true.” Uno said.

“Never mind that just tell me what you want,” Asura said.

“Oho ho ho. You see. I bought this girl for 70,000 Dora so that my men here can have fun, but then I heard a rumour that you folks want to buy her for 150,000 Dora.”

“Yuruki, sit down. That’s an order. Ina put that dagger away. Marx calm down. These are real police officers with him.” From the moment they saw Salume, everyone aside from Asura was on the edge. Once they heard she was used by his men to have fun all members released killing intent. Even the stoic Lumia was ready to go. If Asura doesn’t stay calm, this bar will turn into a battlefield. Well, I’m okay with that though. Asura thought.

“Correct, miss leader. They are real military police. If any of you lay a hand on me, you won’t be able to walk the streets of castle town tomorrow. Since you’ll be considered criminals.” Uno said while laughing.

“So you know that our reward was 150,000 Dora. You also knew that we were trying to buy Salume. Who told you all this?” It was only a while ago that they mentioned making 150,000. Considering the timing when Uno and his goons showed up, it must’ve been either the bar owner or the waiter. Furthermore, Uno’s men must’ve been listening from the back and once they’ve confirmed the information, they went around to the front and came in all together. Asura guessed that much. 

“I’m a merchant, you know. Information is the second most important thing to me aside from my life. Thanks to that motto, I’ve made it this far in one generation.”

“Hmph. You’re more of a scalper than a merchant.” Asura muttered quietly “And the worst kind of scalper.”  

“By the way. would the members of Moon Blossom like to know what will happen to this girl if you don’t buy her?”

“No, there is no need for that. 150,000 is it?”

“Yes. By the way, I don’t do discounts or negotiate.”

“Hm. let me tell you a story from my past life.” Asura started talking casually. “In my previous life. I was the leader of a mercenary group, and at that time I was hired by a rebel army in a region called the Middle East.” Asura kept talking, Uno was giving her a dubious look. “They were so pleased with our success that they invited us to a certain building. The area under their control, you could say was temporarily peaceful. When I entered the building there were girls who they captured being used as sex slaves.”

“What are you talking about…?”

“Shut up and listen,” Asura said with a chuckle. “I’m not sure who started it, but before I knew it. The place went from being an orgy spot into a warzone. We killed all the rebels. Ha ha, isn’t that funny? We lost credibility and had a hard time rebuilding our image because of that, but it felt really good.” Asura actually knew who started it, but she had fun, so she didn’t blame them.

“Do you understand? I’m the type of person who’ll take on any fight that gets offered to me. Did you understand the point of my story now fatso?”

“If you lay your hands on me…” Uno understood what Asura meant. If one of her members loses their temper, she won’t stop them.

“Then we’ll be criminals, right? Oh, yes. Personally, I’d like to work with the Kingdom of Arnia for a while, so I’m not too keen on doing it. So I’ll give you idiots a chance since you don’t know who you’re messing with.”

“I have real military police and bodyguards here, I don’t care if you’re mercenaries or whatever. Don’t get carried away, or you’ll get hurt…” 

“Shut up fatso,” Yuruki said. “The boss wasn’t done talking, do you want to die?” 

“…Let’s kill them, kill them, kill them…” Ina kept muttering this. Every member of the group was raring to go. Since they’re all scum, Lumia won’t object either. 

“You people don’t know how to make a deal,” Uno said with a look of anger on his face. 

“Calm down. You should at least listen to what kind of chance I’m giving you.” Asura put her right hand in her pocket, and took out a 1 Dora coin and flicked it toward Uno.

“I’ll be buying Salume for this. Now pick it up. If you pick it up you can leave Salume behind and leave. You guys are lucky. You can buy your life with this and sleep well tonight thanks to my kindness.”