Chapter 32

“Y-you bast... no, you, ehem,” the middle-aged man was forcibly suppressing his anger, which Urich found very funny and made him slap his knee.

“Let’s just forget about what happened earlier. It was a personal thing, right? Anyway, what happened to your little master? He didn’t come with you?”

“Sigh, and I was happy that I finally got to meet a mercenary squad,” the man looked up at the ceiling with a face full of concern. He let out a deep sigh and looked at Urich and the mercenaries.

“How about you introduce yourself first? If you don’t like me, you can leave, but it looks like you’re the desperate one here,” Urich said as he crossed his arms. His attitude made the middle-aged man twitch his lips in frustration.

“My name is Kuba Phillion—it’s Sir Phillion to you. ‘Sir,’” he emphasized his title as Sir.

“Pfft, Sir? You wish, Uncle Phillion,” Urich’s mockery erupted a laughter from the mercenaries in the room. Phillion, who had enough of the humiliation, desperately wanted to storm out of the room.

‘No, I mustn’t. I have to endure any kind of insult for his sake.’

Phillion suppressed his frustration and glared his eyes.

“I want you to escort my master to the capital of Hamel.”

The mercenaries murmured.

“We don’t have any horses so we travel everywhere by foot. And walking to the capital of Hamel is going to take us three months. If anything goes wrong, maybe even up to half a year,” Bachman frowned.

“There’s no need for horses. Just throw us into your mercenary group and transport us without anyone noticing as naturally as possible.”

Phillion glared at the mercenaries with an intense gaze.

‘This is an opportunity that doesn’t come often. I must not miss them.’

Phillion was familiar with the song Urich’s Brotherhood. Any mercenary squad that had a song about them going around was guaranteed to be skillful.

‘I hate to admit it, but this man took me down like I was a child. I know he’s good.’

Phillion had something more important than his own pride.

“The expense for this request is going to be huge, you think you can handle the down payment?”

“Handle it? My down payment will be more than enough for you.”

Phillion took out a pouch and put it on the table. It was only as big as a fist. n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

“Are you joking? This much gold coin isn’t even enough to keep us going for a single month, let alone a down payment...” Donovan stopped mid-sentence as he was scolding the middle-aged man. The other mercenaries also stared in awe.

“These are pearls, not gold coins.”

The mercenaries dropped silent. Urich was the only one who didn’t know what was going on.

“What is that? Is it expensive?” Urich said as he took out a pearl from the pouch. Its brilliant shine caught his eyes. He stuck out his tongue to get a taste, but Bachman stopped him.

“Be careful, Urich, a pearl that big is easily worth over ten million cils. It’s the jewel of the sea.”

Bachman, who used to be a fisherman, knew the worth of pearls better than anyone else in the room. Even so, the other mercenaries all had an idea of what they were worth.

“You brought a pouch full of jewels, not gold coins.”

Urich put the pearl back into the pouch and looked at his mercenaries. Everyone was frozen in place.

“We’ll take a moment to discuss among ourselves, Sir Phillion,” Donovan said as he ushered Phillion outside. Before leaving, Phillion said to the mercenaries with a concerned look.

“Integrity is the most important making of a mercenary.”

The mercenaries didn’t respond, and Phillion had to wait outside the tent for their discussion to end.

“Urich, this is a huge job. It’s nothing like the ordinary jobs that we’ve been doing,” Donovan said as he walked back into the tent. Only Urich had no idea how big of a deal this was.

“The pearls he just brought in are worth well over a hundred million cils. There’s going to be at least a few of those involved in this job,” Bachman said as he rested his chin on his hand.

“Isn’t that a good thing? Why are you all so scared?” Urich looked from one mercenary to the next.

“High pay means high risk. There’s going to be a lot of different parties involved in this, Urich. It’s not simple fighting like we’ve been doing. You heard what Phillion said, right? He emphasized ‘integrity.’ He’s saying that this must be kept under covers the whole way,” Bachman calmly explained to Urich.

“If it’s a job involving a lot of higher-ups... it’s best to avoid it, Urich. It doesn’t matter to me, but we have a lot of young mercenaries with bright futures in our squad,” Sven brushed his beard. It was something he always did when he was worrying about something.

“What do you think, Donovan?”

Donovan slammed his fist down on the table.

Bang!

“As much as I hate to admit it, but Urich’s right. What are you all scared of? Risking our lives for money is what we do as gladiators and mercenaries. What’s the difference between working a bunch of small jobs and making scraps, and pulling off one big job and making all that at once? What, you’re all happy with making pennies for the rest of your lives? Huh?” Donovan showed his frustration. Bachman shrugged and looked at Sven, which Donovan saw.

“Bachman, stop looking around for other people’s opinions. You’ve been like this since we were gladiators. Always hiding behind other people’s backs because you don’t want to take any responsibility. Why don’t we just cut off your dick right here, right now?”

Donovan mocked Bachman, and Bachman squinted and laughed coldly.

“You’ve been a toothless tiger ever since Urich took over as captain, am I wrong? Your scolding doesn’t scare me, Mr. Has-been Face of the Squad,” Bachman retorted.

‘What a pain,’ Urich thought to himself as he looked at the two heated mercenaries. His and Donovan’s relationship, on the other hand, was much better than it was in their gladiator days. They weren’t as hostile as they once were.

‘But those two have the worst relationship.’

After all, it was Bachman who chose Urich as the man to kick Donovan out of his throne. Their relationship was worsening by the day.

“Urich, just say the words, and I’ll cut off both these men’s heads and throw them in the pigpen,” Sven said as he laughed. No one could tell if he was joking, or being serious.

“Whether they fight with their heads on the line or not is none of my business, but if we can’t come to a decision, then...” Urich tilted his head in deep thought. He snapped his fingers.

“Let’s go with our tradition. Gather the brothers.”

It was the tradition of Urich’s Brotherhood to settle any debates according to the wish of the majority. Even though they had a technical hierarchy, they were really equals. A vote was a vote, whether it was from the leader of the squad or a rookie mercenary.

“Gather around. We’re voting.”

The mercenaries spread the word and gathered in the center of their camp. Urich proceeded to explain the situation and options without leaving out any details, and the mercenaries exchanged their opinions.

‘It’s an iffy job, but it does pay well.’

No one knew how dangerous the job would be. It might only require them to take a trip down to the capital and get paid for it. It could be easier than they think.

Ssss.

One by one, the mercenaries raised their hands. It didn’t take long for the majority to be in favor of taking the job.

“Well, it was obvious what the outcome was going to be. What mercenary would turn down a job that pays this much?” Donovan said nonchalantly.

Mercenaries were men who chased money and men who killed for money. The only thing that set them apart from the common bandits was the fact that they acted according to integrity. A mercenary who didn’t do that was no different from a bandit.

* * *

Urich’s Brotherhood agreed to take the job and continued their negotiation with Phillion.

“The man you will be escorting is Master Pahell, the third son of House Elchrisha. They made their fortune in pearlcrafting...”

“I don’t care about all that ‘House’ stuff, so just tell us why he needs our protection. We, Urich’s Brotherhood, will take charge of this, and we do not break trust. Even if we have to back out because it’s too much for us to handle, we won’t say a word about any of this to anyone. I swear on the name of Lou,” Urich told Phillion. His face was as serious as ever with not a hint of lightheartedness.

“Name of Lou?” Phillion looked at Urich with a puzzled face. The song had the lyric ‘Urich the Barbarian.’ Barbarian practically meant pagans.

“I’m a believer of Solarism. You can trust me,” Urich assured Phillion by showing him his solar pendant.

Phillion took a moment to pray and showed his relief. The fact that the person he was negotiating with followed the same religion as him alone was a big relief.

“I see, so you were baptized... Master Pahell is on the run because of an inheritance dispute. Our late lord left the bulk of his wealth to Master Pahell, even though he was his third son. This didn’t sit right with his other sons. They led their armies to seize the House Elchrisha’s manor and capture Master Pahell. Even the loyal lieges of the family turned their back against him, and the other sons went as far as to tamper the late lord’s will before submitting it to the royal court.”

“So, that’s why he’s running away. Does he have a solution once he gets to the capital?”

“Master Pahell’s mother is Sarian, the second wife of the late lord, while the other sons are the children of the first wife. They are his half-brothers.”

Urich’s head was starting to hurt and frowned.

“Why is it so complicated?”

“This is just how the noble world works. Just let him finish.”

Phillion glanced at the mercenaries and continued.

“Master Pahell’s mother, Sarian’s brother is a member of The Order of Imperial Steel. We plan on officially starting a war with his help. We’re confident that he will lend his hand to his nephew in his effort to reclaim his rights.”

“So, it’s just an inheritance dispute. You nobles are always the same—you don’t give a damn about the people below you who are dying for your wars,” Bachman shot at Phillion. He himself had to flee his homeland after all the exploitation by the nobles.

In a battle between the noble families, it was the common people who lost the most. For them, it didn’t matter who became lord, since it had very little impact on their lives.

“Shut up, Bachman,” Urich commented harshly.

Bachman clicked his tongue in response.

“Our original plan was to take a ship that I had arranged for us and leave the Kingdom of Porcana once and for all, but it never came. Either they couldn’t reach us with new information, or something must have happened. That’s when I happened to hear that the mercenaries were in town. I figured it was better to travel on land, anyway.”

After hearing the whole story, Urich looked at the other mercenaries. They nodded, thinking that there wasn’t too much to worry about.

“What about our pay?”

It was the biggest question that the mercenaries had. They had already seen the down payment of pearls that were worth over a hundred million cils. It was definitely a lot of money, but not for the distance and the length of their travel.

“I will pay you triple the down payment for three months of travel. For every additional month, I’ll add another pouch of pearls.”

The mercenaries’ mouths hung by their ears. it sounded like a crazy amount of money.

“Bachman, can you do the calculation? I’m bad with numbers,” Urich said as he raised his hand.

“Considering that it’s the same pouch of pearls as the down payment, and spreading that over three months... we’ll get four, or five hundred million cils. Now, if we split that among ourselves..." Bachman’s face dropped. He repeatedly folded and opened his fingers.

“Considering that the remuneration is including our expenses, we get ten million cils per person at best. Is this a joke? Only ten million for three months of hard work? Huh?”

Bachman threw his hands up in the air, riling up the other mercenaries.

“Booooo! That makes no sense, no way!”

“Ten million for three months of work? Get out of here!”

Bachman pretended like he was listening to the complaints, then looked at Phillion.

“Sir Phillion, do you hear that? Sounds like that’s nowhere near enough.”

The wrinkles in Phillion’s face deepened.

“I’ll add a hazard pay. Another pouch of pearls for every battle...”

“Make the hazard pay payable immediately after each battle,” Urich said, cutting Phillion off.

“I don’t have that many pearls on me.”

Without him noticing, Phillion had lost control of the negotiations. He was being played like puttie in Urich’s hands.

“Fine, then swear on the name of Lou—that if you break your swear, you’ll become a ghost who forever wanders the world of the living. Integrity also applies to the employer, not just us mercenaries.”

“I swear on the name of Lou that I will not break our contract. If I break our integrity, then I will gladly accept the punishment of my soul, the soul of Kuba Phillion, forever wandering the world of the living.”

Phillion solidified his oath by praying on Urich’s solar pendant.

“Good, Uncle Phillion. Bring your young master by noon tomorrow,” Urich said as the tension on his face eased. Phillion strode out of the mercenary camp with a weary look on his face. After walking for a while, he looked up at the sky. The stars were twinkling.

“Well, I guess that worked out. I’ve found some people to escort my master.”

The back of the loyal knight staggered with fatigue. He had risked his life for this quest.