Episode 27 This is the best. (1)
“Oh, why are we meeting so early in the morning?”
“My employer is a total idiot. Is he that scoundrel prince from the Ferdium estate?”
Mercenaries were gathered in large numbers from early in the morning, before the sun had even set.
These were the people that Jiselle had recruited through the Zimbar Mercenary Guild.
They were gathered in the large open space behind the mercenary guild building, gossiping and talking about their employer.
“It’s a pity. Can I do it roughly?”
“Yeah, it seems like that reckless guy is trying to get some credit, but let’s show him how scary the world is.”
“How about we just pretend to fight, take the money, and leave?”
They all thought of Jiselle as a joke and pretended to do some work.
Not all of the hired mercenaries knew of Giselle, but some had heard rumors that he was a pitiful mercenary.
The rumor spread quickly among the mercenaries.
“I heard that Lord Ferdium is often away from his post?”
“That’s even better. Do you think that little brat can handle mercenaries properly?”
“They say he’s a guy who causes accidents all the time. Should we, the experts, show you what a real accident is?”
While the mercenaries were laughing and chattering, a balding, muscular giant stepped forward and shouted loudly.
“Hey, listen up, everyone. If you want to treat your little employers with ease, you need a representative, right?”
The bald giant’s name is Gordon.
He was a famous mercenary with considerable power in the neighborhood.
He was called ‘Gordon the Muscle’ because he always worked out without rest.
He is so obsessed with working out that he doesn’t even drink alcohol or shed tears, citing muscle loss as a reason.
He was a man who was only interested in making his muscles bigger and stronger.
Gordon said, tensing his chest muscles as if he was trying to show off.
“In order to make it easy for the employer, we need to have a unified opinion. If we all play separately, we’ll end up in trouble. How about I take care of the driving force and give you some power? After work, you can take care of the work yourself.”
A pusher is a mercenary slang term for someone who acts as a representative and pressures their employer.
Thanks to that, when things got easier, there was a custom that other mercenaries would chip in a little bit of money.
The mercenaries nodded their heads in agreement at Gordon’s words.
“Hmm, ‘Muscle Gordon’ isn’t so bad.”
“I agree. If you were a kid, wouldn’t you be shaking in fear just from seeing Gordon’s muscles?”
“How about getting a little more money?”
“Good! Let’s show the poor employer the bitter taste of the world!”
“Hahaha, that’s right. We should charge tuition since we’re teaching the world about ourselves.”
The mercenaries clapped their hands together excitedly.
Although some mercenaries frowned at this behavior and did not join in, most had already agreed to elect Gordon as their representative.
The leaders of small mercenary groups also secretly supported Gordon, thinking that they would not be at a disadvantage.
Gordon smiled confidently as people cheered for him.
“With this many people, even the employer can’t do anything they want.”
There are about 160 mercenaries gathered.
If they rebelled as a group, it would be quite a headache for the employer.
In such cases, employers usually give in and give in, either by offering more money or by relaxing contract terms.
For example, if it is judged to be dangerous, it may allow you to leave without paying a penalty.
This kind of thing happens all the time in this world. The more lenient the employer, the worse it gets.
Since mercenaries’ trust and reputation were low, they didn’t always go out and fight, but usually engaged in a moderate war of nerves.
“Well, I don’t know about anything else, but let’s make sure this one is related to terminating the contract.”
“Yeah, if it’s really dangerous, you have to run away.”
“But isn’t that really nothing special? No one has actually seen a monster there, it’s just rumors.”
There are rumors that the Forest of Demons is dangerous, but no one actually knows the truth.
Some of the mercenaries thought of it as just hunting monsters, while others gathered with the intention of fighting and running away if it became dangerous.
Some people just come here to make money without any thought.
As the mercenaries were collaborating with each other, the figures of two men on horseback began to slowly approach through the morning fog.
“Oh, finally, the new employer has appeared. As expected of a noble, he’s so easygoing. I’ll have to show him a taste of something. Hahaha.”
The mercenaries burst into laughter at Gordon’s words.
They too were beginning to wonder how Gordon would deal with his employer.
Behind the two figures, about thirty figures without horses appeared.
Gordon whistled at the sight.
“Is it because he is a noble? He brings quite a lot of soldiers with him.”
“Even so, there are more of us.”
“Hehe, should I surround you and scare you a little?”
The mercenaries began to slowly advance forward, heeding Gordon’s words.
He was thinking of taking the initiative with a scary expression.
Gordon smiled and waved his hand.
“Okay, everyone, restrain yourself. It would be bad if you scared them too much from the start. First, I’ll… … .”
Gordon, who had been talking confidently, closed his mouth when he saw the faces of the people appearing through the fog.
I rubbed my eyes and took another close look at the approaching people, but I wasn’t mistaken.
A voice of astonishment escaped his lips.
“Oh, the mad dog gang?”
All the mercenaries froze in place.
Tap tap tap.
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Jiselle, who had been riding leisurely and approaching Gordon, looked down at him and smirked.
“Are you a herder?”
“yes yes?”
“What’s your name?”
“Gordon… … .”
“They really are simple-minded people.”
Jiselle snickered and passed Gordon.
Just by looking at where the mercenaries were standing, he could tell the situation. He had done this a lot in his past life, so he couldn’t not know.
When I actually saw it from the perspective of the person who was being targeted, it was incredibly childish, but I wasn’t angry because it reminded me of the old days and made me miss it.
Following Giselle, Kaor passed by Gordon, glaring at him with cold eyes.
As Gordon was sweating profusely and struggling, one of the Cerberus mercenaries following my captain spoke.
“Gordon, it’s been a while. Are you looking forward to it?”
Gordon eventually bowed his head.
In terms of skill alone, I’m confident I can defeat at least one member of the Cerberus faction.
But the Mad Dogs were such a bunch of guys who fought like rascals that messing with them would just be like stirring up a hornet’s nest.
The other mercenaries also avoided eye contact and whispered among themselves when the Cerberus mercenary group appeared.
“Why is the mad dog gang with the employer?”
“I don’t know, why is Gordon just sitting there?”
“What can Gordon do? If those mad dogs attack, it’ll be a headache.”
The mercenaries who had been trying to strip Giselle of her clothes together began to look around at the Cerberus mercenary group.
It is not too late to take action after figuring out why they are following their employer.
Gordon also retreated to his seat without saying a word.
As Giselle sat down on a chair in the open space with her legs crossed, the Cerberus mercenaries stood behind her as if guarding her.
That alone was a rare sight, but the atmosphere the Cerberus members were in was also strange.
“Those mad dogs… …Why are they watching me like that?”
“Are you scared of your employer?”
It’s not that it wasn’t, the entire Cerberus mercenary group was keeping an eye on Giselle.
In particular, it was obvious that the leader, Kaor, flinched every time Giselle made a gesture.
“It looks like the mad dog gang has fallen flat on their faces in front of their employer… … .”
“Do employers have that much power? Was Perdium that powerful?”
“Anyway, since the Mad Dogs are on the employer’s side, we can’t touch them. It’s tiring to fight them.”
The mercenaries saw this and realized that they had failed to strip and eat Giselle.
If they started making excuses and started a fight… …the other side wouldn’t be okay either, but it was obvious that they would suffer more.
As if waiting for Jiselle to arrive, the mercenary guild manager came out of the building and distributed contracts to the mercenaries.
“Now, this is Archduke Ferdium. Everyone, check the contract carefully and follow along.”
The mercenaries could not proceed with the contract hastily.
Because the Cerberus mercenary group had such a high notoriety, it was somehow awkward to work with them.
After a while of the mercenaries standing around looking at each other, Gordon was the first to step forward, snorting.
He didn’t want to admit that he was being watched by the likes of a mad dog gang.
“This is Gordon. Please take care of me.”
He bowed to Giselle and stamped his seal on the contract without warning.
Jiselle tilted her head and asked Gordon.
“Can I just skip reading the content?”
Then the office manager next to him chuckled and answered instead.
“That guy can’t read. His brain is muscle. He just believes whatever you tell him to do, no matter how much he gets.”
“If you study hard, you will lose muscle mass! Don’t you know that the law of the world is that if you add one thing, you lose another?”
The office manager looked at Gordon pitifully, who was glaring at him with a grin.
“What the hell do you have to lose by studying? Look at that kid crying because he doesn’t want to study.”
“Oh, I don’t know! Anyway, that’s what I am!”
Because he was illiterate, Gordon was often scammed.
I always thought I should study, but I was so busy exercising and resting that I really didn’t have time.
Jiselle looked at Gordon with a smirk.
He also had many illiterate subordinates in his previous life who could not read or write properly.
I said something because Gordon looked different from others.
“Once the work is done and I have the chance, I’ll assign someone to teach you.”
“thank you!”
As Gordon shouted loudly and returned to his seat, the mercenaries who had been watching came out one by one and proceeded with the contract.
Anyway, I came here knowing that I would be fighting monsters.
Since the Cerberus mercenaries were capable, it would be safer if their employers could properly control them.
It was just a little disappointing that I couldn’t just rip off my employer at will.
The contract was finalized with the exception of one small mercenary group that had a strained relationship with the Cerberus Mercenaries.
The office manager organized the contracts and handed them to Jiselle.
“There are 148 people in total.”
Including the Cerberus mercenary group, the number reaches around 180.
The mercenaries were secretly relieved because they were the kind of people who would be hired in a territorial battle.
The more people on the same side, the stronger it becomes.
After checking all the contracts, Jiselle looked around at the mercenaries.
“I am Giselle, the Grand Duke of Ferdium. As I heard from the office manager, I plan to develop the Forest of Demons. I will explain the tasks to you one by one when I get to the territory. Please take care of me.”
He immediately ordered his mercenaries to prepare for departure.
For the mercenaries who couldn’t speak, he bought horses and lent them to them, and he also bought a lot of supplies needed for living on the streets.
As soon as they finished preparing, they set off for the Ferdium territory.
People who saw the vicious group of mercenaries from the morning were terrified and were busy trying to avoid them.
‘It brings back old memories.’
As she watched the mercenaries chattering and following her, Jiselle was momentarily lost in old memories.
Even back then, he was leading mercenaries and wandering around the continent like this.
‘I hope we meet again.’
Now that we’ve returned to the past, my former subordinates will be living their own lives.
Finding them again was also one of Giselle’s goals if the opportunity arose.
* * *
The party soon reached the border of Ferdium territory, but the mercenaries were forced to stay near the territory.
There was no way to avoid clashes with his vassals if he entered the territory with unauthorized armed forces.
After leaving the mercenaries on standby, Giselle and Gillian went straight to find Belinda.
“Belinda, how are the preparations going?”
“You’re later than I thought. I’ve already prepared everything you mentioned.”
“As expected from Belinda.”
Belinda was delighted and proud, but then her expression turned worried.
“But I’ve already spent more than half of the money I received from Leipold. Considering the cost of maintaining troops and the additional material costs that will be needed in the future, I think the remaining money won’t be enough. Is that okay?”
“It can’t be helped that it requires a lot of initial capital. I have to start quickly.”
20,000 gold is a large amount of money that can allow one person to live comfortably for a lifetime, but it is not enough to start a large-scale business on a territory basis.
Jiselle also expected that most of the funds she had extorted from Amelia would be used for initial preparations.
We had to make a profit as quickly as possible to sustain our business.
“Tell the workers first. They’ll start construction tomorrow.”
“Master, you have to stop now. You should spend the remaining money somewhere else. If you keep doing this, you really won’t be able to do anything. If you start construction, the money will just keep pouring out.”
“No, this work must never stop. It is essential for our territory.”
No matter how much Belinda thought about it, it seemed impossible to develop the Demon Forest with the remaining money.
When it seemed like Giselle wouldn’t give in, she finally lost her temper.
“I’ve already spent over 10,000 gold just on preparing people and supplies! No matter how much I think about it, pioneering is impossible!”
At Belinda’s words, Giselle smiled strangely.
“It’s okay. We’re not going to pioneer.”
