91 – Middle Ground-6

When the money topic came up, the mercenary captain smiled.

“Go up. Hey, host! Do you have a quiet room?”

“The room we prepared is already occupied…”

“Is that so? Hey, hurry up and clean my room!”

His subordinate, who was next to him, was hit hard on the back and gasped for a jump. With a few other mercenaries enlisted.

“The mercenary corps is quite large.”

“You shouldn’t be surprised by this. There are too many people in this inn, so we’re renting a few more facilities nearby.”

The mercenary captain glanced over at my women.

Even if Nerwen hid her ears and Eleanor wrapped her whole body, I could prove that my status was not low by being able to move both a wizard and a priest together.

“You are very kind.”

Contrary to my impression of a mercenary, he greeted me with a friendly attitude.

“Aren’t you working for money anyway? If you don’t know how to treat precious people kindly, it’s hard to work here for a long time.”

With a chuckle, he filled a glass and handed it to me.

“We will prepare to welcome guests as soon as possible. Before that, forget about work and enjoy yourself.”

I hesitated for a moment, but there was nothing wrong with his words.

Good thing. It is to prevent useless disputes and mediate fights. It is also necessary for my return.

There was no need to continue working gloomily. Because it’s all I want to do

“This is Enerel. What’s your name?”

This is someone you will have to work with for quite some time if you can make it work. You should get even a little bit of information.

“Just call me Wolf.”

He laughed heartily and poured me another drink into my empty glass.

“These guys here are the real elite of the elite. Out of our mercenaries of over a hundred, only the smartest and strongest guys are gathered.”

“Five…”

There were many more than I thought. If it was a mercenary group preparing for war, would it have to be this large?

It was quite different from the mercenary, who had an image of a gang of ruffians doing rough things, almost like a thug.

“They’ve picked three or four heads of orcs or bandits. They’ll be able to do whatever task you entrust them with… Hey! Is it over?”

His men hurriedly came down the stairs.

“Yes, yes! You can go up!”

It was cleaned, but it didn’t look very clean. It smelled of women, and there were spilled alcohol and pieces of meat all over the place.

Still, this was good enough. It wasn’t to the point where I couldn’t breathe inside the car.

“I’m waiting for you downstairs. I’ll be back.”

I left the other girls and entered the room. As we sat down on a small wooden chair facing him, he opened his mouth first.

“You are beautiful people. Your ability is amazing.”

“They’re not like that.”

“Ah, that’s the atmosphere over there. Have you ever been in the priesthood…”

“no.”

Not all priests of the Goddess Church were required to live as singles, but those who held some positions were obliged to remain single.

“Then let’s talk about work. Just tell me anything. Escort? Retrieval? Fighting or looting? Anything.”

“Retrieve stuff? No, I’ve never had one, so it’s probably closer to exploration.”

“A search? Of course, there are adventurers among us, but… To be honest, the unit price won’t match.”

Armed to fight through forests and mountains is different from armed to fight against human swords and spears.

A person who is determined to fight a huge nature or a deep dungeon is not the same as a person who is determined to fight and kill people.

No matter how ambiguous the classification of the two was, it was a waste to use mercenaries for adventurers to do.

“I’ll go inside.”

“If not…”

“A place called the Middle Ground. There are things to go in and find.”

Wolf closed his eyes for a moment. Since he kept his mouth shut, he felt the pressure of the seasoned mercenary captain.

“It’s dangerous. We’re not just talking about it, we really don’t know what’s going on. There are rumors that we’ve seen all sorts of monsters, and there’s nothing to get inside.”

“I still have to go.”

“If it’s an all-out battle with those guys in there… Huh, it’s kind of expensive. It’s hard to say, but I’m not sure we can take it.”

At this level, he was an extremely gentleman for a mercenary.

Whether it was or not, there were many people who were blinded by the gold coins in front of their eyes and ran away when the time came and changed the name of the mercenary group.

“It’s okay. We’ll save more people, and we’ll do the battle.”

“Then… what are you looking for?”

“A unicorn. A living unicorn.”

It wasn’t just about hunting unicorns. It took more than that to obtain the corpse of a unicorn that was permitted to be used.

“Saving more people means…”

“How many more mercenaries can the Weather family hire?”

It wasn’t just saving people. You have to cut down the power of the family with money. We need to cut off the tense atmosphere in which a war could break out tomorrow.

“I see. You should have worried about that first. I thought you came without knowing anything at all. Did you send it to the Aldgild family?”

“We did have some conversations. So, is that possible?”

When he was speechless, I took a bag of gold coins from my pocket and gave him one of them.

The gold coins were not enough to attract the captain of the giant mercenary group, but I needed to make them aware of how much money I had.

“The situation is not very good, but I understand that it is not easy. I have prepared a sufficient price.”

“Give me a minute… give me some time. I need to think about it.”

Wolf, who kept his mouth shut and thought quietly, spoke with more serious eyes.

“If it’s a big game that can affect the war situation, there are about three nearby.”

“three?”

“There are three of us including us. Poisonous scorpion mercenaries are the most numerous, but they probably won’t listen even if they pay a lot.”

“Why?”

“I have a deep relationship with the Weather family, and I enjoy plundering.

It wasn’t particularly strange. The words were plunder, but from the mercenary’s point of view, it was like an extra income and a life allowance.

I didn’t even think that they wouldn’t plunder because it was a red wolf mercenary, and if the scale was large, there was no choice but to take a lot of things.

“I’ll have to convince you.”

“It won’t be easy.”

Still, it didn’t look dull.

What mercenaries value is power and money right in front of them. If you have a problem that cannot be solved with money, you just need to show your strength.

“The Swan Mercenary Corps are unnecessarily picky guys. If they’re so proud, they shouldn’t have started killing people in the first place… Anyway, it’ll be hard to convince them too.”

“How about you?”

Wolf smiled broadly.

“Well, if you pay well, I’m always welcome.”

Still, I managed to convince even one person, and today I succeeded. I nodded slowly.

/////

“I’m sorry. I can’t see anywhere else…”

Ceres’ shoulders drooped.

“Cheer up. It can’t be helped, right?”

“But, with those scoundrels…”

Negotiations are over. I didn’t have to meet with the Red Wolf Mercenaries longer than necessary.

However, we couldn’t get out of the inn we first entered.

“it’s okay.”

The inn’s capacity. That’s it. Since every town and city was packed with large and small mercenaries, unless you were renting a barn from a private house, you had no choice but to come back here.

“There’s no reason to meet with other mercenaries when you’re not ready, and you can’t afford to be a nobleman. In the end, you have no choice but to do this.”

“The atmosphere is so vicious that you’d better stay here for your own safety, young boy!”

Perhaps feeling better about the advance money I gave him, Wolf kept pouring me a drink while sticking next to me.

It was cheap beer. I thought it was of lower quality than the inn’s beer, but I didn’t want to get angry.

If this number of mercenaries drank every day, they would have no choice but to bring cheap, low-quality alcohol.

“Hey, don’t be afraid and go quickly!”

“Oh, well, it’s something that can be done so easily…”

“Have courage! Don’t give up!”

The slightly harsh female mercenary’s voice intertwined with Nerwen’s panicked voice.

Before I could grasp the situation, Nerwen approached me. Behind her, several mercenaries banded together to prevent her from escaping.

“What?”

“Master. The world… No, it’s the fruit I brought from my hometown.”

My mouth was watering just by listening to it. I didn’t like the idea of the elves, but I couldn’t say that sweet and delicious things were not delicious.

That fruit could be said to be the crystallization of elven technology.

“I didn’t mean to give it like this, I just wanted to take it out and look at the situation because I thought I might need some energy if it looked too boring…”

Still, I couldn’t easily smile at Nerwen’s face. That said, I couldn’t tell her to quit in front of so many people, in front of her favor.

It wasn’t that Wolf had a crush on me and treated me well. As a business partner, it was an intentional move to convince me that he was trustworthy and normal.

It wasn’t good for me to be irrational here. Of course, some people will understand me once I explain the situation, but it was a personal matter to the end.

I had no intention of explaining in front of so many people what kind of relationship we were in.

“okay…”

I looked at Nerwen with a puzzled expression.

“Thank you.”