93 – Middleland-8

“The atmosphere is very hideous.”

Eleanor got out of the carriage and swallowed nervously.

The place where the poisonous scorpion mercenaries were gathered was a crude stone fortress.

Hard to believe they made this. It must have been a fort that the military came in and built years or decades ago.

“I’m glad I didn’t walk in vain. Let’s go.”

The mercenaries at the entrance looked around with bewildered eyes.

“This is the poison scorpion mercenary camp!

“No, heh, wait a minute. I don’t think they’re here to f*ck, do they?”

However, he smiled as if he realized that there were not too many people in the carriage, and most of them were women.

“I’m still bored, but come on. You can go inside and get permission from the manager. What’s the matter, aren’t you Jenny in the back?”

“…”

A frivolous-looking mercenary called Jenny. Her expression was not good.

“Your face is smooth, so it seems like just yesterday that I told you not to work as a mercenary and to work as a prostitute, but in the end, did you listen to me?”

“It’s not like that!”

There are many beautiful women and there is only one man, so he was looking at us as a bunch of prostitutes.

I felt really bad, but this was better. At first glance, looking at their dirty teeth and crumpled clothes, these were real mercenaries without even the slightest knowledge.

Common sense that an expensive carriage symbolizes status, or that a small number of people entering such a place have the ability to do so, was not an opponent.

It’s much better than getting into a fistfight because you got into a fight right from the entrance.

“We did not come with that intention, we came to hire this mercenary.”

“Employment? I’ve been waiting for the captain to do something big soon… I’m sure there’s no way to get a decent amount of money?”

“I have enough money.”

“Aha…”

In an instant, his eyes were stained with greed. However, he probably didn’t have enough self-restraint to reach into my pocket right away, so he nodded and guided us.

“Follow me.”

I didn’t expect that there would be someone as cooperative as Wolf, but even taking that into account, I was very uneasy.

I didn’t expect a state of discipline, but the mercenaries around me were too free. Moreover, their armament was appallingly meager.

There were quite a few mercenaries dressed in rags and holding rusty swords. Some of them were even holding swords and long wooden sticks.

Ages also varied. Too young or too old mercenaries huddled in a corner.

“It smells bad…”

Farseer frowned. I could feel it in my nose too.

There was a mercenary sitting on a thin cloth and lighting a fire on powder. It was a drug.

It was disappointing, but it didn’t look funny either.

There are many. In a human-to-human fight, the difference in numbers is absolute.

“Here. He’s polite, so say hello.”

Entering the tent, I saw a skinny man sitting on a bed with an arrogant attitude. A naked woman lay unconscious on the floor.

“What is the nobility-smelling man doing here?”

impolite. However, Wolf’s side was an unusual situation, and it would be common for ordinary mercenaries to use just this amount of words.

“I’m here to hire you.”

“If you’re from the Weather family, get out of here. Or give me plenty of gold coins.”

I waved a bag full of gold coins in front of him. I opened the entrance and stirred the inside with my hand, proving that the inside was filled with gold.

“Well, if it’s that money, it’s a different story… Where can I rob it?”

The wide-eyed mercenary captain smiled greedily.

“It’s not going to kick it, it’s going to get into the middle ground.”

“There? No.”

But as soon as I told him where I was going, he immediately burst into laughter.

“Why?”

“It’s obvious. There’s no hairy guy, right?”

I wondered if I was talking to a bandit.

“I’ll give you enough money.”

“The more gold coins the better, but I don’t intend to go into such a dangerous place. There is nothing to gain, and there are many children to die.”

It seemed difficult to convince easily.

“We’ve got quite a few people. If all these people move together, where do they get their food? I’m not kidding, they never meet any enemies, and a third of the dregs here are going to make a dying noise?”

Contrary to his thoughtless appearance, he didn’t say anything out of the ordinary.

If you lead untrained mercenaries into a dangerous place, you will suffer more losses than necessary.

“If you work hard on this side, we can prepare for that much.”

“Well, if you have money, you can buy food. Women? Medicine?”

Slowly, my patience began to run out. They are the kind of mercenaries who take looting for granted.

Whether it was an army or a mercenary, plundering of the occupied territory would inevitably happen, but there could be a difference in the degree.

It is not a peaceful requisition that leaves the residents with at least the necessities of life, but literally looting like bandits.

“How about buying a woman with money?”

“I can headbutt cash, but not the kids below me?”

Dangerous. Holding hands may not be the right choice.

As a mercenary used in civil war, I thought I would be keeping the minimum line, but maybe I was thinking of crossing that line.

“Well, if it’s absolutely necessary, hand over the women behind you to me. Then I might think about it…”

“no.”

I cut him off once, but it was unpleasant. must be restrained in some way.

Putting all this aside, there is no reason for the party of warriors to be by my side.

The desire to apologize and guilt were just personal feelings. There was practically no contract I could bind them to, and no benefit to them from being with me.

I don’t know what Eleanor, proud of herself, will do. I had to hold back here.

While I was thinking about how to act to finish this amicably, I felt a strange sensation from behind.

“for a moment.”

Eleanor grabbed my hem. Although her body and face were wrapped tightly, she was still attracting the attention of the people around her.

I sighed deeply and turned my back on the leader of the Venomous Scorpion Mercenary Corps.

“I’ll do it here for now.”

I was thinking that I might not be able to succeed at once. It was not a fruitless meeting at all, since he could see what the poisonous scorpion mercenaries were like.

However, seeing the arrogant mercenary commander’s face, he began to worry.

/////

“It’s dangerous. Joining hands with them is not a good choice.”

When the distance to the citadel widened a little, Eleanor called me right away.

“Okay. I’ll go in alone from now on. You don’t have to worry about these things.”

The behavior of the poisonous scorpion mercenary leader was obviously rude. There was no need to stress unnecessarily.

There were many of them, but they were afraid of surprise when they were against opponents of a similar level.

If it wasn’t a world number or a group of thousands of orcs, in case of emergency, at least one of my bodies could be taken out without a problem.

“I remember the face. A criminal who fled the capital ten years ago. He was also running an organization back then.”

“You mean you remember that?”

“Before becoming a knight, I had to somehow make a feat to be recognized. I almost caught it then, but failed.”

This made things more complicated.

It was obvious how a great force could be called. Like the Red Wolf Mercenaries, it must have absorbed displaced people from here and there.

“But, is there any way to arrest him right away? The line must be in contact with the Weather family.”

If Eleanor reveals her identity here, the tension of the people surrounding this place will intensify.

“That’s… because he wasn’t big enough to be wanted nationwide.”

“Even if he’s a criminal, I can’t wipe them all out now.”

If you bought a mercenary group connected to the Weather family, they would say, ‘Are there such distrustful bastards!’ and will run around.

However, if they were all destroyed overnight, it was clear that they would consider this an intervention by the imperial family.

And in some way, the moment Eleanor or my name and information gets into them, they won’t wait any longer and will carry out their next strategy.

“If you act softly now, others may be harmed.”

“What do you want to see me right now?”

After the meeting, I asked about the woman next to him. He said at least this woman was a whore.

The other women in the citadel were also questioned, but at least none of them were brought by force.

In a poor situation where there is nothing to eat right now, she might be a woman who sells herself because she has no choice. However, there was no justification for wiping out the poisonous scorpion mercenaries right away.

“You’re going to kill me right away again? Like that adventurer who died after attacking you last time?”

“that…”

“No, you did well. But you endured it well. If it wasn’t for me, wouldn’t you have swung the sword right away? As always, someone else will take care of the cleanup.”

It was absurd when he cut down a person in a normal bar and then said, ‘That guy played a trick.’

In the end, I was the one who cleaned up the corpse, cleaned the blood, and coaxed the tavern owner to pay more.

“Then what is it?”