The Female Knight of Doom - TFKOD 16: Red-haired Allen

Alice quickly developed into a respectable mercenary.

Everyone familiar with the Immortal Rom knew that he was accompanied by a red-haired Allen three years later.

Allen was a girlish beauty with red hair that resembled flames. He was a young, strong mercenary. He was lithe and wielded a thin sword, swinging it as though he were dancing.

Every waitress at the tavern adored him. They called him a pretty little sweetheart, surrounded him, and teased him. The tavern’s older women loved him even more because he always blushed and remained silent.

But he would never be referred to as a “sweetheart” by anyone who witnessed him murder.

The young man was an apprentice of Immortal Rom. Despite his youth, he was a very good swordsman. He terrorized his adversaries with his ruthlessness and cruelty.

They would never have guessed that the icy mercenary in front of them was once a frail child if they had known the little Alice.

Over the course of the last three years, this young woman has witnessed numerous horrific events and encountered things that many people will never encounter in their lifetimes, which have fundamentally altered her.

Rom took on private commissions unrelated to combat when she first started learning from him in order to help her get used to mercenary life more quickly.

In practice, these commissions were only slightly more flexible and free than combat, but they weren’t any simpler. At times, they had to put their lives in danger to cross battlefields where opposing armies were present. At dusk, they occasionally came upon a hillside where a battle had just taken place. It looked like the end of the world, and the fields were teeming with corpses.

Under the blood-stained sun, the black-robed devotees of the God of Death prowled among the corpses like crows, causing them to walk through necromancy spells.

Without Rom, who treated Alice like a father, she most certainly wouldn’t have survived.

She had innumerable nightmares that woke her up during the first six months. But eventually, such things would become commonplace. Even after she killed her opponent with her sword, she gradually learned to hide her pain and repress her fear.

The lessons her mother had taught her over the years seemed to vanish like a windstorm, forgotten and abandoned, and her innocent heart grew cold.

The young woman eventually changed into the icy, red-haired mercenary Allen after years of change.

So far, she hadn’t been promoted to Special Grade Mercenary because she hadn’t been in any particularly vicious battles or accomplished any extremely challenging missions by herself.

She was well-known, though, and many believed her skills were on par with those of a Special Grade Mercenary. She demonstrated this by earning the title of “Red-Haired Allen” despite only being a Third Grade Mercenary.

Promotion to Special Grade Mercenary required a loud title and a unique battle record.

As was the case with her master, Rom, who rose to fame during the “Winter Meat Grinder.”

Blood poured like a river during that terrible conflict, and both sides lost a great deal of soldiers. Apart from his facial scar, Rom was unharmed when he came out of the dead.

His title was changed to “Immortal Rom” and he was promoted to Special Grade Mercenary.

The red-haired Allen hasn’t yet taken on a mission that is significant enough on his own, but the circumstances for his upgrade have changed. He hasn’t been able to upgrade because he has only accompanied his master on missions, but it isn’t that hard to accomplish this goal.

It was far less expensive to hire Third Grade mercenaries than Special Grade ones.

In the Mercenary Union, red-haired Allen was the most sought-after Third Grade Mercenary, and some principals would specifically ask for him.

But whenever the need arose, Rom refused on his apprentice’s behalf, “Finding another person is preferable. He’s still a child. Wait until he’s seventeen if you want him to go on a mission by himself.”

Since Rom was sixteen when he embarked on a mission by himself, his argument is actually a little implausible.

Many young mercenaries start taking on relatively easy missions on their own at the age of fourteen or fifteen.

The only explanation was that Rom was being overly cautious and wouldn’t let Allen leave his sight. Allen’s red hair and early age raised the possibility that he was Rom’s illegitimate son.

However, the conjecture gradually subsided as he grew older and it became evident that the two looked very different.

However, as Allen’s reputation grew, some people spread unsavory rumors, possibly out of jealousy or lewdness. These rumors, however, are unfounded because anyone who has witnessed them can see that their relationship is merely that of a master and apprentice.

According to some, Allen might be able to depose his master and go on adventures on his own. Still, he would frequently just smile and say nothing in response to this.

Few people were aware that Allen had actually asked to stay with Rom until he turned seventeen.

Such an agreement was made when Alice had just changed into men’s clothes and cut her hair short. As the master, Rom would supply Alice, the apprentice, with food and equipment until she was seventeen years old.

In exchange, she would always follow him and help fulfill his orders. She has made the decision to hold off on acting as an independent mercenary until the pact expires, even though she is now capable of working alone.

Usually, Rom would say, “By the time that happens, I’ll be almost retired.”

Rom, who was already in his forties, was older and expert than a young man, but his agility had started to wane. Although it was hard for outsiders to notice, this shift was a blow to his perspective.

In order to prepare for retirement in a few years, he began saving a few years ago. Should his scheme succeed, he would be the only mercenary to reach retirement age on the continent.

There seemed to be an endless number of wars on this continent from the time he was fifteen and entered the profession until now, at forty-three.

The aristocrats and city lords who controlled the land appeared to be never content with what they had and had to steal from others, despite the fact that there was no distinction between nations.

Not until she became a mercenary did Alice realize how fortunate she was.

The city where she was born and raised, Poztar, was located in close proximity to His Majesty the King’s Royal Capital, despite its remote location. The lords of the city were representatives of His Majesty the King and were answerable to him directly; they were not nobles with fiefs.

Although they enjoyed fighting among themselves, the lords of the various regions were afraid to directly attack those who were under His Majesty the King’s authority. Attacking them, after all, amounted to rebellion. Since the king was a descendant from the God of Light, he was impervious to offense.

Even though the king was powerless to stop the lords’ wars, if anyone dared to attack the royal capital and risk universal condemnation, the lords and nobles across the continent would send troops to take the city. Thus, despite Alice’s impoverished upbringing, it was preferable to the lives of those forced to flee due to war.

She asked Rom why the lords were always fighting when she first heard about this. He told her about a mercenary rumor that was going around a lot.

Rumor had it that the God of Valor was the one who had sparked the endless conflict on this continent, which was like a curse. He enjoys and loves fighting wars. His followers will increase as long as there are wars.

The royal capital region has never been caught in the crossfire and has always been stable. This was so because the God of Light had his Temple in the royal capital. The God of Valor wouldn’t dare cause trouble in front of the God of Light, even if he were conceited.

Given the vigilant watchfulness of the God of Valor, the rumor is most likely not unfounded.

Rom was going to begin preparing Alice for her promotion to Special Grade Mercenary as she got closer to seventeen. This would enable her to function autonomously as a Special Class Mercenary following his retirement.

The title didn’t really matter to Alice, but when she became a Special Class Mercenary, she made the decision to come out as a woman. In addition, as she grew older, the issue of posing as a man became more challenging. She had no desire to live her entire life feigning to be a man.

The Mercenary Union would not abandon a Special Class Mercenary due to their gender, but they might not hire a typical girl.

They were just too uncommon, after all.

She pondered this for a long time, but she never considered the agreement she had made with the God of Doom.

What should she say? Alice was no longer the simple child she had been when she lived in the small house on Dark River Street some time ago. She spent practically all of her free time with the gods, and she only ever listened to her mother’s prayers every day.

But now she had so much going on in her life that it was difficult to think of anything that had to do with the gods. And Rom, her master, had no faith in the gods. Bertucci-believing mercenaries typically offered spontaneous prayers to the God of Valor in the lead-up to major conflicts, pleading for bravery.

It was easy to forget the God of Doom in such a setting.

Additionally, the God of Doom had never returned to her since she had spoken to him in the temple’s prayer chamber. Their conversation at the temple when she was twelve had gradually become so hazy and superficial in her memory that it nearly resembled a dream.

She occasionally questioned whether the event had actually occurred or if she had made it up.

She had reportedly spoken with the God of Doom, as evidenced by the fact that she had joined Rom as an apprentice. She was not supposed to be doubtful.

But she had lived with Rom long enough to make his good fortune seem normal. She had nearly forgotten that living among the swords was an unmerited privilege, intimately tied to her master’s unrivaled good fortune.

…

T/N

Don’t be confused. The pronouns are “he” for Allen and “she” for Alice, they’re still the same person. Thank you!