95 – middle ground-10

“Do you need him?”

Rather, he questioned me. I didn’t say anything.

“Erinis will help if you ask him. Surely, the goddess loves you.”

“then…”

“But, I’m not. I just wanted to say hello because I felt a familiar power, but the providence given to me was not directed at you.”

The old priest smiled warmly. The staff and two steps seemed slow and weak at first glance, but he was a person who came all the way from the capital alone. Some of the bandits and wild animals must have been easily defeated.

“They’re going on an adventure together… These are them.”

He slowly looked at my party, then stopped his gaze at Celia.

“Nice to meet you, saintess. Have you resolved your concerns?”

“No… You still don’t have an answer.”

“Even if not immediately, God will surely answer. Well, what if they don’t respond? We just follow.”

With that last word, the priest who served the Goddess of Vengeance walked away from us.

“…Dangerous.”

“Did you know someone?”

Eleanor let out a sigh.

“He’s not evil, but he’s a dangerous person. Among the nobles, he was a kind of solver.”

There was no way a person visiting the Goddess of Vengeance could hope for social stability. You must have visited him to get revenge on something ‘impossible under the current system’.

“But he’s not someone who’ll be hostile to us for no reason, and if he knows you, he’ll be more harmless. But it’s better to deal with it quickly. It’s going to happen anyway.”

/////

“Are you really here?”

The place where the swan mercenaries were staying was not an inn. It was a mansion where a fairly famous merchant, if not a nobleman, would stay.

“That’s right! These guys are very rich, right?”

“Let’s go in first.”

Inside, there were people who were so neat that it was difficult to recognize them as mercenaries.

If it wasn’t for the swan pattern on the armor displayed here and there, I might have come out thinking that this might not be the case.

“How are you all here? I’m sorry, but I’m not accepting applications right now…”

“I came because I have a request.”

“Really? Follow me! The captain will be on top right now!”

After being guided up to the place where the mercenary captain was, a high voice started to be heard before the door was even opened.

“Seriously, Captain. It can’t be like this. No matter how much I think about it…”

“What if we discuss more about this and that? Have you thought about what to do next?”

The mercenary who guided me seemed as puzzled as I was.

“Should I wait?”

“Oh, no! He’s like that sometimes, so don’t worry too much. Captain, Captain! A guest is here!”

The mercenary knocked on the door, and the sound from inside died down.

“Come in.”

The mercenary captain, sitting at a tidy desk, greeted us calmly as if the previous argument had been hallucinations.

“Nice to meet you. I am Leone, the leader of the Swan Mercenary Corps.”

There was no unrestrained feeling typical of mercenaries. Rather, it was a calm atmosphere that would have been easier to understand if they were called knights.

Her long, flowing blonde hair and white overalls were a familiar knight’s look.

“There is something I want to entrust you with.”

“It can’t take a long time. If it’s not urgent, I’ll take it after this job is over.”

“If it’s urgent, it’s urgent. It’s not something that will end easily. I’ve already contacted other mercenaries, and I think we can handle it together.”

When the topic of another mercenary group came up, Leone’s complexion changed.

“If you use our mercenaries, you won’t have to cooperate with others. Although there are not many of them, each one is an elite knight.”

Was it also a knight?

Despite the fact that there were not so many of them, I seemed to know why they were classified as a core force.

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Just as petty criminals from farmers could not catch up with thieves who devoted their entire lives to picking locks, ordinary mercenaries could not deal with knights who devoted their lives to fighting.

“Then, do you have any intention of cooperating with other mercenaries?

“Unless it’s absolutely necessary. Clashes arise because of differences in values.”

It seemed that he had no intention of easily solving the information. In order to have meaningful conversations, we needed to understand them better.

“This is a personal question… You said you were a knight. How did you become a mercenary?”

“It’s nothing to be ashamed of, so there’s nothing I can’t tell you.”

If you didn’t tell me this, I was about to give up halfway. Still, seeing as they continued talking without being particularly vigilant, it wasn’t that they were hostile towards us more than necessary.

“I lost my master in a fight with the demon king. He had an heir, but he was an unreliable person. I didn’t deserve to go back to my family.”

It’s a story I’ve only heard of, but it was common for supporters to split as the successor changed.

“But it’s a bit unfortunate to go back to my hometown and start farming, and there were some members who couldn’t join the family for their own reasons.”

“Didn’t anyone call someone else?”

“There was, but they were willing to take in one or two of us, every single one of them. That’s not what they wanted.”

The war was over, and there weren’t many nobles with enough money to organize more knights.

Knights are just as important to their dignity and prestige as their abilities. Fighting is the last option unless the opponent is a monster, and winning without fighting is the way to minimize sacrifice.

Since the Knights Din wouldn’t be able to show off their power with numbers like mercenaries or regular troops, they had to show off a dignified and clean atmosphere at least in peacetime.

Even if they drastically cut their annual salary, the cost of armor, weapons, horses, and personal decorations would not have been small.

“Rarely, the people who call us are from a family we couldn’t possibly enter based on our beliefs… so we became mercenaries.”

While everyone was having a hard time, a nobleman who boasted of his wealth and tried to expand his power when the threat of the demon king disappeared could not be the right person.

It must be someone who hides in a crisis and tries to take advantage of someone else’s weakness.

“awesome.”

“Thank you. Few people have said that.”

For such people, it might have been better to state their intentions directly. Even if you take a certain risk, it will be better than being misunderstood by a person of conviction.

“I have personal reasons for using mercenaries, but also because I want to prevent war.”

This is a bit of a risky move. However, I needed to know why she wanted to join the war.

“War…”

Leone frowned.

“How far did you know? Did Prince William tell you?”

“Yes.”

“I once fought alongside him. He was so brave when he cut down monsters… Anyway, I’ll tell you clearly. We can’t back down from this fight.”

Aside from hating futile sacrifices and being willing to give their lives for justice, knights are not afraid of a fight. I am not afraid of losing life.

“Why?”

“First of all, because of trust.”

“Have you signed a formal contract?”

“It’s not like that. But, if we betray their trust just because there was contact, no one will come looking for us.”

“Well…”

“Like other mercenaries, the Swan Mercenary Corps cannot be maintained by making a contract with the village to clear out wolves and rummaging through the woods to hunt down a few monsters. We have to make a contract with the nobles somehow.”

It wasn’t that there weren’t mercenaries with expensive ransoms, but those who chose mercenaries to keep their beliefs like these would have a harder time.

“If we lose trust with the Weather family, no one will call us from next time. Besides, there are personal circumstances. The Weather family must win this fight.”

“People will die. Some will be plundered, some will lose their homes.”

“These things will happen regardless of us. At least if we fight hard and make our mark, the inhabitants of the places we occupy will be safe.”

It wasn’t that he was thinking of plundering, but he was thinking of accepting the inevitable sacrifice.

“War will happen. The Weather family already has a firm opinion. It’s not information that can be leaked here and there… but the Aldgild family already knows, so it doesn’t matter.”

“Would there be a war even if we hired all three giant mercenaries?”

“We can’t hire us forever. We can’t stop the new mercenaries from coming in, and in the worst case, we’ll lead the soldiers of the territory and attack. Weather already thinks so.”

I couldn’t help thinking like this. Once the conversation was going through, but there was no way to pull out such a bait.

Unlike the poisonous scorpion mercenaries, who were thinking of using force in the worst case, there was no justification for subduing them with force.

“If you still need a mercenary, please let me know the name. We’ll see you after work.”

When things didn’t work out as expected, the country had to enter the middle ground as well.

“This is Enerel.”

“Ene… Rell? Wait, then, could it be that the person hiding his face behind him… is, by any chance, Baron Enerel of the Leodrin family?”

When I saw Leone’s wide-eyed face, I realized that I had made a mistake.