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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: FusionX
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Of course, it wasn’t that Servisso or the examiner Brenel had deliberately spread the information, but rather that they had to report to their superiors as part of their duties, and in the process, many people had come to know our information.
Well, considering our level and my existence, it was a natural result.
‘It must have been consumed as a huge topic of conversation.’
Therefore, I had nothing particular to say to Servisso.
“A warlock with such skill and patience is rare. Before long, they’ll stop such rude behavior to your face.”
It was a kind of consolation.
Of course, it wasn’t that Servisso had good feelings towards warlocks or me.
It was an indirect expression that while the mercenaries had behaved disrespectfully, the Mercenary Guild was taking a different approach.
“It’s fine. I’m used to it anyway.”
“…You have amazing patience.”
Servisso seemed genuinely surprised when he saw no sign of real anger on my face.
“It’s not particularly so, but…”
Of course, unlike ordinary warlocks, I hadn’t made a contract with demons, nor was I affected by the negative influences of magic.
Moreover, I wasn’t stupid enough to react to insults with such obvious intentions.
‘They’ll end up paying the price anyway.’
Whether they made rash moves after seeing our achievements or attacked out of anxiety about our growth rate, they would inevitably end up in conflict with us.
Well, there might be some who approach pretending not to know, or some who apologize to survive, but…
‘There’s no need to accept them.’
There were plenty of other groups to form good relationships with.
Of course, if they showed enough sincerity, it might be a different story.
“What recent official guild requests are there? Please give us something we can handle.”
“For advanced mercenaries like yourselves, monster subjugation would be most suitable. Medium-sized orc tribe subjugation, troll disposal, or dealing with giant ants or giant spiders would be the most straightforward.”
Giant ant subjugation was indeed something that usually required parties of advanced mercenaries, as it was difficult to gauge the size of the nest from the outside.
When intermediate mercenaries took it on, they usually weren’t accepted unless they had at least two or three parties.
It was a point that showed how unreasonable the order from Baron Owalan had been.
I was interested in the mention of trolls among the list.
“Have trolls appeared?”
“You’re in luck.”
They were creatures that could be used as potion ingredients.
Therefore, it was a popular request.
As they were classified as medium to large monsters, even individuals that couldn’t use mana were listed on advanced requests.
This was first come, first served.
We had come out a bit early to receive our mercenary badges, and it was lucky.
‘Should we start with this?’
I was thinking of taking on normal requests for a while to deflect attention, rather than engaging in suspicious behavior openly in this situation where we were under scrutiny.
“I’ll take it.”
“Hmm, it was last sighted near Normary Village.”
“Normary Village is…”
“Ah, it’s a village located southwest of the castle. There are six villages under the Doriem Viscounty.”
Normary Village was one of them, located in the southwest, he said.
From my memory, I knew it wasn’t too far away.
For a knight, it wouldn’t have been a particularly difficult task, so it was plausible.
“They invaded from the west of Normary Village. Part of the village was destroyed, and the mercenary group stationed there suffered heavy losses.”
Although it was called a mercenary group, it seemed there were no advanced mercenaries.
Even if there were, they seemed to be at a level unable to use aura.
It was unlikely there were magicians or clerics.
They usually joined larger or more established parties or mercenary groups.
“In that direction, isn’t it the Monster Forest?”
“Monsters usually all come from there.”
That was true.
Therefore, most monster subjugation activities took place in that area.
“Hmm… How long is the time limit?”
“Ten days. If you just do the subjugation, it’s 20 silver after deducting the fee, if you hand over the corpse as well, we’ll add 200 silver. If you’re uncomfortable going into the forest, you can just stay in the village for ten days.”
In that case, they wouldn’t impose a failure penalty, he said.
In simple terms, you could think of the penalty as protecting the village for ten days.
“Of course, lodging and meals are provided for as long as you stay in the village.”
‘…Advanced mercenaries really are treated differently.’
It was worlds apart from the treatment received as a lower-rank mercenary.
Moreover, the failure penalty was practically nonexistent.
Lower-rank mercenary requests were quite competitive to receive, and the rewards weren’t as large as one might think.
More precisely, because they had to move in groups for safety, the rewards were divided, resulting in little money falling into one’s hands.
In the worst cases, there were times when you’d only earn 20 copper from a single request.
On top of that, equipment costs, food expenses, etc., were all borne by the individual.
For reference, this was something I had experienced directly.
It was a one-day request, but it was incredibly disheartening.
‘In a fairly large territory, you could earn about 50 copper for a day of manual labor, so I thought it might be better to do manual labor than this.’
Moreover, lower-rank mercenaries faced quite severe penalties for failing requests.
In a way, it was natural, as there were so many lower-rank mercenaries that they were easily replaceable, so their treatment was bound to be poor.
Things improved a bit when you became an intermediate mercenary, but advanced mercenaries were treated completely differently.
Despite such harsh conditions, I chose mercenary work because manual labor wasn’t available every day, and in the long run, as long as I didn’t lose my life, I thought being a mercenary was better.
It was a structure where your situation gradually improved as you accumulated achievements and gained the guild’s endorsement.
In reality, I had gone through all sorts of hardships and experienced terrible things, but I had somehow managed to establish myself, but as I mentioned before, I ruined everything by mistakenly touching a warlock’s dungeon.
“If captured…”
“If we capture the troll, will the guild purchase it?”
“…Capture a troll? Ah, I apologize. Yes. We do purchase them. There’s a branch of the Magic Tower in the territory… In that case, you could probably receive about 10 gold.”
The value of a live troll and a dead troll was worlds apart.
Troll blood was an ingredient for potions, but its value dropped rapidly after death.
In contrast, live trolls could be used for various research purposes and fresh blood could be extracted while they were alive, making them highly desirable to the Magic Tower.
“But capturing monsters isn’t an easy task…”
Moreover, it was a profession quite looked down upon by the upper classes.
However, I was a bit of a special case.
“You seem to have forgotten my profession.”
“Ah…”
“I thought it might help my image a bit since magicians welcome these creatures.”
Magicians also tended to look down on warlocks.
However, if it benefited them, that was a different story.
“I plan to weaken it to near death and then try to charm it. If it fails, I’ll kill it, if it succeeds, I’ll bring it back.”
“Ah… So that’s how. You don’t seem to be a professional monster hunter.”
“I’ve had too many other things to do to spend time on that.”
It was obvious that the things I had to do were related to black magic.
Moreover, since I was a necromancer, Servisso closed his mouth.
“Then I’ll mark the request as accepted.”
“A carriage has been sent from Normary Village, you can ride that there.”
‘…They even provide this?’
It was a small thing, but I could definitely feel that we were being treated well.
Certainly, in this world, those with power received respect.
Of course, since we weren’t just ordinary advanced mercenaries but a group that included Kayla, an advanced expert, they probably had higher expectations.
Even considering that, the point that those with power received better treatment remained the same.
The same went for warlocks.
Despite being so avoided, despised, and cursed, if they had power, they were given opportunities like this by the guild and had ways to rise to become certified warlocks.
Of course, this was an exception in the Holy Empire and its subordinate kingdoms.
“Here’s the request form.”
It contained the request details and the special terms we had been explained (selling the corpse, selling price if captured), and the guild’s seal was properly stamped.
I signed it and then put away the request form.
“Well then, good luck.”
“Thank you for your hard work.”
After exchanging light greetings with Servisso, I went outside with my companions.
“The attitude of the guild staff and regular mercenaries is surprisingly different.”
“From the guild’s perspective, it’s beneficial if we join them. They don’t intervene excessively, but they do provide conveniences.”
“Hmm… Is it because of Master?”
“It includes you, Baldur, and me as well. Guild branches also compete with branches in nearby territories.”
“…Aren’t all mercenary guild branches the same?”
“No. The status of a branch varies depending on its size and the number and quality of mercenaries it has.”
Therefore, guild branch managers always covet excellent mercenaries.
They didn’t pay much attention to lower ranks as there are many of them and they naturally flocked when the branch grew and there were more requests, but they paid a lot of attention to high-level forces.
Probably after I completed a few requests, they’d call for me on their own.
‘If I weren’t a warlock, they would have invited me long ago.’
Even if just Kayla or Athena, or even Baldur wanted to join, they would have treated them well long ago.
The penalty of being a warlock was enough to make even the guild branch manager hesitate.
“There are even cases where branches set up temporary offices in other territories to keep an eye on competitors and poach mercenaries.”
Although extremely rare, there were actually cases where entire branches were swallowed up like this.
“In a sense, it’s a small territory war.”
“Territory war?”
“Yeah. The branch manager of a mercenary guild inevitably has to be quite close to the lord of that territory.”
At my words, Athena’s expression turned slightly surprised.
It was natural, if you thought about it.
Looking at the Owalan Barony, which was a pioneer territory, there was practically no regular army, and the territory’s defense was handled by vigilante groups and hired mercenaries.
There was only one knight under their command, and the number of retainers a knight could have was fixed.
Maintaining a standing army was a huge burden on a territory’s finances, so unless they were wealthy or top-tier nobles, most territories had to rely on mercenaries for defense.
It was not for nothing that armies were called money-eating monsters.
There was even a saying that wars were fought with money.
A wise lord would choose mercenaries over an army and use the saved money to develop the territory, while a greedy lord would choose money over an army to make their own life more luxurious.
Either way, hiring mercenaries was far more satisfying than building and maintaining an army, and that was how this world had developed.
The Mercenary Guild selected and endorsed reliable mercenaries to meet the nobles’ demands, and nobles hired those selected individuals who fit their circumstances and situation.
Mercenaries hired in this way very rarely betrayed their employers.
Once hired, they received considerable compensation, and successfully completing requests could serve as a stepping stone for larger requests in the future.
Moreover, if they betrayed a noble after being hired, they wouldn’t be able to handle the aftermath.
The mercenary system maintained its high reliability to the extent that this system was maintained and developed further.
As such, a close relationship was inevitably formed between the mercenary guild branch manager, who could guarantee the credibility of mercenaries and reliably supply them, and the owner of the territory where the branch was located.
It wasn’t for nothing that taking control of a mercenary guild branch in another territory was referred to as a small territory war.
If a mercenary guild was taken over, a major pillar responsible for the territory’s military power would collapse, suggesting that the territory that took over the guild could invade that territory at any time if they acquired justification.
At the point of securing the majority of mercenaries, victory was almost guaranteed unless there was a significant difference in knight forces.
‘And justification can be created somehow if the opponent is weak.’
Kayla had said it too.
The backsides of nobles were dirty.
While they outwardly valued honor, the foundation of this world was survival of the fittest.
This was a world where the excuses of the weak could be crushed somehow.
In fact, she was only outwardly a knight, but behind the scenes, she was one of the shadows operating in the underworld, so no more words were needed.
“I see…”
Athena nodded as if finding my explanation interesting.
Separate from her being a genius, Athena was from a backwater territory, and more precisely, from an even harsher environment of slash-and-burn farmers than a pioneer territory.
She couldn’t help but be unfamiliar with these things.
“But there was no mercenary guild in the Owalan Barony, right?”
“They usually don’t establish branches in such small and dangerous territories.”
It was dangerous and not valuable.
Not just anyone could become a branch manager.
Especially using the name of the Mercenary Guild wasn’t an easy thing.
Branches of the Mercenary Guild were not established in territories that didn’t meet certain criteria.
The Owalan Barony was at a level that could never meet those criteria, and it was even difficult to establish a temporary branch there.
After briefly explaining this, I added.
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