Chapter 41

At his brother’s sudden announcement, Andrew was taken-aback.

“What are you talking about? A way to make money?”

“Those mercenaries over there, aren’t they camped quite far from here? I’ve heard they don’t stay near the village,”

“Those guys? I think so – it’s not near the village at least,”

For children who liked to play at war, the mercenaries who carried real swords were a topic of utmost interest.

In particular, if they were well-known mercenaries then all the more so. For that reason, groups of curious children had already poked their noses around and found the place the mercenaries had made their camp. It was knowledge that was well known among children of their age.

“Right? So why did they decide to camp so far away? Do you know Andrew-hyung?”

“Apparently they don’t get along with the Seers here. Since they’re not people of the territory I guess the Seers don’t like them. I think the mercenaries are just taking that into account and keeping a distance of their own accord.”

Among Andrew’s friend, there was one fellow who was both brave and friendly, and had mustered up the courage to strike up a conversation with one of the mercenaries passing by, Andrew had been with him at the time and listened in on the conversation.

“I see,”

“But what were you saying before? There’s a way to make money? If you’re talking nonsense, you’ll get hit,”

Despite his brother’s threat, Joshua’s eyes were sparkling.

“It’s true, I have an idea. Andrew-hyung, listen, those mercenaries over there, they stopped by the market to buy ingredients, right?”

“I guess so,”

“Then we can run errands for them! Think about it, they must find it bothersome to come all the way to the market every time they need something too,”

“I think that should be okay?”

“Andrew-hyung, let’s go before the other kids think of it,”

When Joshua pushed, Andrew jumped up from his seat without hesitation,

“Then I’ll go and talk to them.”

As soon as Andrew said he would come forwards, Joshua followed him without a word of protest.

Inwardly, he praised his brother,

‘As expected, Hyung is the best when it comes to things like this.’

Andrew, who had already reached within earshot of the mercenaries, called out,

“Hey Ajusshi!”

The Hound Mercenaries who had lost the bet and were forced to come to village market had been full of irritation.

The village market was annoyingly far from the website and they had ended up stuck on food duty today.

Plus, because of the terrible nature of their colleagues, they had been forced to walk the entire way without exception.

It was one of the conditions of the bet.

“What is it?”

When a little boy boldly came up to them, calling out, the mercenaries expressions crumpled into something ugly.

He thought of the annoying village children who stuck together, buzzing around like furitflies and begged for money.

“If you’ve come to ask for money, then don’t bother.”

Andrew bravely stepped forwards to the mercenary and said,

“Not that, don’t you need someone to run errands for you?”

Joshua, who was silently watching from a step behind Andrew, silently cheered for his brother, he was more timid, and couldn’t boldly talk to adults like Andrew could.

“Errands? There’s no work, so just go,” the first mercenary snapped, trying to chase the children who looked like they would be annoyances away.

Another mercenary, who had been watching the exchange, began to show interest in what Andrew was saying.

“Hm? Did you say errand?”

When one of the mercenaries showed interest, Andrew opened his mouth again,

“Yes, I asked if you needed someone to run errands for you? Isn’t it annoying to come all the way out here to buy ingredients every single time? If you’re going to do that every time, then you can just ask us to do it. We’ll make sure the ingredients reach you.”

The second mercenary who had shown interest in Andrew’s words, blew a long whistle and drew the attention of the other mercenaries.

“Hey! This kid wants to run errands for us!”

“What errands?!”

“Come over here first!”

Everyday, some mercenaries were sacrificed to the journey they had to make to the market to buy ingredients.

There was the option to buy a lot of ingredients at once but preparing food with old ingredients meant there would be a drop in the taste of the food – they had to deal with that anyway when they were travelling, so when they could, they at well. But it meant,  someone who lost a bed or lost a drinking game would have to come to the market everyday to buy the food.

“Either way, we’ll be getting busy soon, we can’t do this every single time. Everyone needs to get enough rest as well, so how can we come all the way here every single time? Let’s just get these kids to run the errands and solve the food problem this way,”

When they heard that, the two mercenaries who had come to join them, began to nod.

The subjugation operation, which had become a bigger mission than expected due to the appearance of the Orc Sorcerer and the subsequent recruitment of mages – would clearly leave them extremely busy.

“I think that’s okay,”

“Me too,”

When the mercenaries agreed, the second mercenary faced Andrew with a somewhat suspicious but stern look,

“Hey kid!”

“Yes?”

“If you lie to us, you’ll die at my hands. You know how scary we are right?”

“What lie? I won’t ever lie! Just trust me once and leave it to me, I’ll show you!”

“Really? Then can you buy us the things we  Ajusshi tell you to and bring it to camp by tomorrow? The price..”

The opponent was a child who could probably be paid less than what they would pay an adult, but the distance between the market and camp was quite long so they wouldn’t accept too little either…

“Hey, one shilling is enough for them. That’s a lot of money for them.”

“Alright, then, I’ll give you one shilling a day as payment. But you have to definitely buy all the ingredients, got it?”

“Yes! Of course! Trust us, you can leave it to us! We won’t let you down!”

And like that, as their conversation came to an end, the mercenaries instructed them to to go the camp tomorrow morning and left with their ingredients.