“That’s why, to make sure that everything gets ended in one blow, I didn’t bother hiring whoever I could, instead, I spent a lot of money and even took out a loan to make sure I could get the Hound Mercenaries,”

Carter began to react to the words,

“As expected, the Lord’s judgement is remarkable, if you hired just anyone and they failed, then it would have been a waste of time and money after all, I hear mercenaries still charge half the price even if the job fails,”

The Lord nodded with a satisfied expression,

“That’s right, that’s why I called them to make sure the job gets done – since we can be sure this is within the Hound Mercenaries strength,”

Although it wasn’t his place to interfere in the conversation, Rockefeller decided to courageously ask something that had been bothering him about the Hound Mercenaries.

“So, did you mention the Orc Sorcerer to the Hound Mercenaries?”

The Lord looked at Rockefeller with an uncomfortable gaze. It was because a child had intervened into a conversation between adults.

“Rockfeller, you have no manners! How dare you pose questions to the Lord!?” When Carter spoke up and got angry though, the Lord became more generous. He raised a hand and waved lightly at Carter,

“He’s young so he must be full of curiosity, were you that curious about it?”

“I’m sorry if I was rude, I was just concerned since it isn’t unrelated to us,”

“Unfortunately… I haven’t been able to tell them yet,”

“What? You haven’t told them?”

“Right,”

The fact that there was a sorcerer among the orcs was extremely important information, but to think he hadn’t told the mercenaries about that yet – it was Carter, this time, who raised the question.

“But why haven’t you given them such important information? If they come across an orc sorcerer unexpectedly, wouldn’t it be the Hound Mercenaries who get beaten?”

The Lord shook his head and said with a confident face,

“They’re not fools, nor are they any random mercenary group – even more so, they are the reputable Hound Mercenaries. So even if I don’t tell them, they will naturally find the information regarding the Orc Sorcerer while they are collecting information about the orcs,”

“Then… Did you do it on purpose?”

The Lord smiled at those words,

“You tell me, if I had asked them to subdue a herd of orcs with an orc sorcerer in the mix, how would they have responded?”

To subjugate orcs that had orc sorcerers included demanded more specialised man-power. They would need to wear magic gear and also would need to bring in a talented mage to counter the orc sorcerer’s magic.

“They probably would have refused the request. They would have made some random excuses because it was too much trouble but once they’ve taken on the job, it’ll be harder for them to give up easily since their reputation would be on the line. There shouldn’t be rumours that the world renowned Hound Mercenaries had given up on a job out of fear of an Orc Sorcerer.”

“So you were aiming for that,”

The Lord did not deny it.

“It’s all for the sake of this Fief. Of course they will make noise and protest, asking why we didn’t mention the orc sorcerer sooner, but if we say we didn’t know about it, then that would be enough. It’s their job to deal with these things anyway,”

Carter seemed to be convinced when the Lord explained it was for the Montefeltro Estate since he had thought it might have simply been a matter of payment and the Lord did not seem to feel guilty about it either.

“Well, if they say the price is higher because of the sorcerer then I’m willing to pay a little more after all, it’s a sacrifice that’s expected if we want to subdue the orc herd that has a sorcerer among them,”

While they continued chatting, Rockefeller was thinking about something else,

‘If they don’t know about the existence of the Orc Sorcerer then the Hound Mercenaries would have come without any preparation,’

No matter how renowned they were on the battlefield, they couldn’t look down on an orc sorcerer who could perform magic.

‘They’ll definitely need a mage to participate in the subjugation. Without a mage, the subjugation itself wouldn’t work,’

If the Hound Mercenaries didn’t want to abandon this job then they would have to hire a talented mage who could respond to the orc sorcerer’s magic.

When the idea popped up, Rockefeller quietly raised the corners of his mouth,

‘If we handle this well, we might have found a place to give out an unexpected loan.’

Unlike the one of mercenaries, the price of hiring a mage was sky high – in other words, if they didn’t have enough money available straight away, they would need a loan.

‘Short term loans tend to have steep interest rates.’

‘You gave three shillings per talent as the exchange fee? You’re not even some kind of idiot but you got ripped off.’

The Captain of the Hound Mercenaries, Carl, arrived in front of the Banco of the Montefeltro Fief to safely store the deposit they had received as the advance for the mission this time.

He still couldn’t believe that his men, who wouldn’t blink in front of the most heinous monsters, had been ripped off by a boy behind the counter of a banco.

‘How much of a dumbass did you look like, that you got ripped off by a kid? Well, what can I expect from those who chase the smell of blood, what would they know about bargaining?’

Carl coughed loudly to announce his presence in the shop.

And as he did, he thought,

‘Something like bargaining… you have to do it like me,’

He had entered, thinking things would be different if he was the one talking, but soon, he was hearing some absurd words as well,

“What? How much did you say?!”

Rockefeller looked up at the mercenary who looked even taller and more rugged than the ones who had come in yesterday and repeated what he had just said in a dull tone,

“You want to store 150 Talents right? The storage fee is 10% of the total amount so that will be 15 Talents,”

Carl seemed to be quite flustered by the words that had been repeated without a single change.

His face became extremely red.

“15 Talents? No, what nonsense are you talking about? What do you mean 10% of the total amount as the storage fee? That’s crazy! You’ve gone completely insane!”

Like any other customer before him, he decided that he did not want to continue this ridiculous conversation and tried to bring out the owner of the shop in person.

He thought it would be better to meet the owner of the store in person and negotiate with them than to talk to the boy who wasn’t an owner.

“Nevermind, where’s the owner? I don’t think you’re the owner of this store?”

“Why are you looking for the owner?”

“I’ll bargain with the owner directly, directly. What is wrong with this storage fee?”

“You don’t have to do that. I’m in charge of loans and gold coin storage here,”

“A kid like you? Are you saying a little thing like you can become the owner of this place?”

“Well, not exactly,” Rockefeller smiled brightly, in a way that didn’t quite suit him.

“Things won’t change much just because you meet the owner. I reckon I’m better to deal with than him anyway,”

At those words, Carter, who had been making gold coins in the back, frowned a little.

‘No, what kind of audacity is this? What do you mean 10% of the amount entrusted will be the storage fee?’

In most Bancos, when a customer entrusted gold coins, the storage fee they paid was around 3%.

The storage of 3% wasn’t small, but it was sometimes a better option for those who wanted to keep gold coins safe or for those who wanted to hide them without anyone knowing.

It was also a perfect option for those people who could not carry a lot of gold coins alone because they could use the IOU certificate for portability.

But 10% for the storage fees!?’

‘What are you going to do if the customer leaves at this rate? The amount of money they want to entrust isn’t small either, it’s as much as 150 Talents! It’s an incredible amount of money!’

While Carter was hesitating on whether he should step out or not, the conversation between Rockefeller and the Mercenary Captain, Carl continued.