With a happy smile, Dana carefully opened the inn door.
The mercenary captain, Kale Wagner, was staring at the table with a solemn expression.
‘He is so cool…….’
From the moment she first met him until now, every moment had been a succession of surprises.
When he first gave her a mission that seemed impossible, she had thought he wanted Dana to fail.
But that was not true.
He had been sincere at every moment. Sincerity showed through in his words and attitude.
When he said they would have to risk their lives, he had meant it. When he said someone could die, he had been sincere.
But from the moment Dana achieved her goal, he fought to rescue Anna without a moment’s hesitation.
He trampled countless Man-Eating Spiders and never retreated even before a giant spider so horrifying that merely imagining it sent shivers down her spine.
After that as well, every word and action of his seemed so wonderful to her.
When the food ran out, he did not let others go hungry merely because he himself was hungry.
When battle with the bandits broke out, he did not hide somewhere safe.
Though he called the other mercenaries ‘Meat Shields,’ the person who became the mercenary company’s shield at the critical moment was Kale Wagner.
She respected him. She did not think she would regret joining this mercenary company.
Dana crept into the room. She wanted to look at him more closely, but she did not want to disturb him while he was lost in thought.
“Dana.”
“Yeeees?!”
Without taking his eyes from the table, he called to Dana in a low, deep voice.
‘W-what can it possibly mean to call me in such a manly voice here…….’
Dana’s face turned red. She covered her warm face with her palms.
“We…….”
“M-me…… and you, Captain? Why?”
“Where…… did the money go?”
He murmured weakly.
***
I stared blankly at the money pouch, which had grown painfully thin.
“There was definitely a lot in here. It was…… full…….”
We had dealt with the bandit gang. There had been no injuries. It had been a perfect victory.
We had gained weapons, armor, and helmets. By pressuring the merchant, I had even extracted a success fee of six hundred Gold.
‘I had not planned to take all of it…… Still, it was rather strange that the merchant did not negotiate.’
In any case, there had been a great deal of money. We had received a suitable amount of food as well. We had successfully reached the next village, Luminac.
But there was no money.
“Why…… did it all disappear?”
“Because we spent it, right?”
With a pure, beautiful smile, Dana told me the truth.
It was not as though I did not know that. No one had stolen it, and we had not lost the money.
“So what we did was…… First, we received treatment at the temple.”
I sent Iris and Niv to the temple to receive intensive treatment.
Iris’s breathing became a little easier, and her limp lessened somewhat. The lethal poison that had run through Niv’s body was gone.
Thinking coldly, it could not be called an efficient act. Treating Iris was one thing, but treating Niv was too expensive.
But it was not as though we lacked money, and when we had enough, I could not refuse to treat mercenaries who had fought beside us.
Perhaps it would have been different if I had not accepted them from the beginning, but if I treated them differently, resentment would inevitably build.
‘Whew…….’
That was not all.
“We also bought a cart Dangdang can pull! And bedrolls, and a pot…… Anyway, we bought lots of things!”
“Yes, we did.”
A mercenary company needed more than one or two supplies.
We had to buy basic necessities and tools, medicine and repair tools, and a cart that could carry them.
The expenses became endless.
“And we commissioned armor repairs too!”
My armor was top quality. It was not something a mercenary company at this stage could wear in an ordinary start.
Even a mercenary company joining a war to fight knight orders, or one setting out to hunt a great dragon, could use armor of this quality with satisfaction.
Naturally, because such precious armor was worth so much, its repair costs rose sky-high as well.
“Ughhh…….”
I had left my armor and Iris’s armor at the smithy. The money vanished into the sky in an instant.
I knew it. To compare it to the modern world, my armor was like a luxury imported car bought by a person with no income.
There would be quite a few benefits I could see from it right away, but I had known I would struggle under its maintenance costs.
“How much is left?”
“Thirty-two Gold.”
“Oh, that is still a lot! Let us go buy something delicious to eat!”
“……Let us do that.”
I had known that once I paid money to the temple, commissioned armor repairs, and bought the things we needed, this amount of money would vanish like snow under the sun.
‘In any case, the situation is better.’
The beginning of a mercenary company usually proceeded in poverty. Normally, players got through this part by grinding people up.
They bought a mercenary for forty Gold and made them do one hundred Gold worth of work. At an appropriate time, they let that mercenary die ‘naturally,’ saving their weekly wage and recovering the hiring fee by emptying their pockets.
After turning lives into the mercenary company’s money and reputation one by one like that, only once enough money had been gathered to buy some armor and weapons was it standard in this game to recruit prospects.
The very fact that I had somehow made it through the beginning without playing that way could be called tremendous luck.
‘Even so, grinding up people in reality would be too much.’
Even if it meant taking a slightly longer road, running the mercenary company while continuing to see the people I had taken in might be more rewarding.
I calmed myself. Dana’s radiant smile seemed to give me strength.
“In any case, it is true that we have run out of money. We should go look for a request soon.”
“Really? Who are we fighting this time?”
“That is not for me to decide, but I hope we fight people who are easy to deal with. Or people who pay a lot of money.”
Smiling, I stroked Dana’s hair. With her eyes closed, Dana enjoyed my touch like a rabbit.
***
“I do not think that will work.”
I had tried to lower my expectations as much as possible.
The reputation of my mercenary company was effectively no different from having none. I had not expected to receive a fair price.
But most requests were requests where we had to risk our lives. I could not take on a request for an absurdly low price.
“I have no intention of bargaining! Then get out! Really, trying to pass yourselves off as a mercenary company with only a few women…….”
“Good day.”
I left. The mercenaries waiting for me sprang to their feet when they saw me.
“How did it go?”
“It failed.”
I shook my head.
Today, I had looked into four requests. Without exception, every one had come to nothing.
“Um…… We do not have that much money, do we? We bought some food for now, but…… Are we not going to be thrown out because we cannot pay the inn fee?”
Dana looked at me anxiously.
“That may happen. Even so, no.”
“Mmm…….”
“I cannot take a request to eliminate a bandit gang of twelve for eighty-seven Gold. It simply cannot be done.”
Even though my mercenary company’s situation was not good, there was such a thing as minimum business ethics.
“They know that too. They know, and they are only testing us.”
“B-but twelve people…… Is that not fewer than the mercenaries we fought last time? It might be worth trying…….”
“No.”
I shook my head firmly.
“In any battle, there is no avoiding putting our lives on the line. We have to make those people pay us the value of our lives.”
“Is it that serious?”
“It is. We won the last battle without trouble, but when we break it down, that was luck too. You all held out well, and I held out as well.”
Of course, my mercenary company was not weak. I had put Anna in gambeson armor and a steel breastplate, so we would be far stronger now than then.
But battle was always a succession of what-ifs. I could be struck on the head with a steel hammer and collapse on the spot, or Jema could crumple from the first sword stroke a bandit swung.
“I have no intention of taking risks this cheaply. No, in the first place, with this kind of request, it would be hard to pay your…….”
I hurriedly swallowed the words, ‘weekly wages,’ that I had been about to say.
Thinking about it, my mercenaries had never received a weekly wage.
‘I need to pay that as soon as possible too…….’
“In any case, no. For a request of this level, at least one hundred fifty Gold. Considering unexpected variables, two hundred Gold…… Even that would not be enough.”
“Then what about the request we got before? You said we only had to teach that bad blacksmith lady a lesson?”
Dana murmured innocently. Iris firmly pressed down on her head.
“Captain. Though our circumstances are not good, I believe that if we unite firmly, we can overcome this degree of hardship.”
“Ah, I know. I was not planning to take it.”
Seeing little Dana so thoroughly squashed, I could not help but laugh.
“Dana. That request is asking us to do bad things.”
“What? Was it not the blacksmith lady who was bad?”
“We do not know that. But we cannot know it. And usually, when someone asks you to deal with a person in such…… underhanded ways, there is a high chance the client is in the wrong.”
Of course, I could not completely reject requests like this. Mercenaries were not people who swung swords for justice; fundamentally, they swung swords for the person who paid them.
But if we became involved in a violent crime just after arriving in this village, our bad reputation could increase rapidly.
Evil deeds committed after enough reputation had been built could be judged with, ‘There must have been a reason,’ or, ‘There is no way that mercenary company would do such a thing. Is it not a false accusation?’
But if a nameless mercenary company first became known for infamy, it would be difficult to shake that infamy off without an extraordinary achievement.
“Then what will you do?”
“For now, we wait.”
Sometimes, instead of doing something, it was better simply to wait.
“In any case, it will take a little longer for the armor repairs to be finished…… And if we can get a merchant caravan escort request, we can earn money safely. Anyway, we are dismissed for today. Rest on your own.”
“Yes!”
Even when told to rest, the only thing those with no money could do was enter the inn and listen to Dana’s concert.
“Dana, sing us that song today! The song men sing when they are drunk!”
“That one? I have sung it so much that it is boring…….”
The mercenaries had no complaints. With ‘Dana’s songs’ alone, they could be said to be enjoying a fairly good cultural life.
“Captain. Do you happen to have some time?”
Iris called to me.
“Why?”
“If possible, I would like to meet the blacksmith. Since our armor is being repaired, it would be necessary to inspect the work on site.”
“You are thorough.”
After nodding, I walked with her to the smithy where we had left the repairs.
The sound of hammering steel rang out. A small red-haired girl was striking armor while holding a hammer.
“It seems they have left the repairs to an apprentice. She seems skilled, but even so…….”
Perhaps she did not find it reassuring, because Iris frowned.
“Hey, wait a moment. Something about this-”
I looked at the hammer-wielding girl’s forearms and legs. Firm, thick muscles that were more than merely plump filled her short limbs.
“Child, that is not a toy. Would you tell me where the blacksmith of this smithy is?”
No sooner had Iris finished speaking than the girl’s expression twisted.
“Hey, you bastard! Do you not have any parents? Where does a green little bitch get off speaking informally to me?!”
A string of coarse curses burst out. I gave a hollow laugh.
She was a dwarf.