89 A Journey IV

They were slowly coming closer to what Dean was told as their final destination but he noticeably saw the Old Man become much more tense.

He acted incredibly kind and carefree when he talked to the leaders of mercenary groups however when given time to rest, he seemed full of dread.

When they were getting closer towards their destination, the Old Man was a lot more anxious and became aggressive when his given orders weren't carried out perfectly.

Most just saw him as a grumpy Old Man who woke up from the wrong side of the bed but Ellis and Alexander continued to warn Dean.

From the aggravated matter when the Old Man saw bandits, they obviously saw that it was a lot of disappointment and anger within those eyes.

This was further promoted when he yelled at the mercenaries who became showy with their fights or resorted to using wasteful actions.

Many of the mercenaries allowed their allies to do whatever they wanted as long as it wasn't against the will of the client.

However this fell short when it came to the much more popular mercenary groups.

They think their name must have reached the entire world with how they lifted their heads high and puff their chests out.

Dean couldn't help but hold them in contempt for trying to purposely cause a rift between the other groups.

It was to make sure that no new talents could bloom into successful groups and if there were any interesting youths, they were tempted to pluck them for their own taking.

Such selfish behavior will be sure to bite them on the back when push comes to shove if their group is built around an unstable base.

They reached many villages in order to trade for local goods that could be transported to the outside world for a much higher cost.

If the source was managed just right, the price could reach as high as 10 times the original.

Dean always enjoyed with the conversation with the client as he would like to brag the success he was able to bring as well as how loving his children were.

It was odd to hear from an Old Man reaching the end of his life that one could have high optimism for the future of life.

He appreciated and wanted to believe in a happy future but there was one part of him telling that it was best to give up such a future.

When the turn came to him on how to respond to the Old Man's rambling, it was difficult to continue it as he wasn't able to see eye to eye.

The method he managed to use in order to not make the conversation sour was to change to a different topic.

Being the kind Old Man he was, it was obvious that he was able to smoothly transition the subject when there was hesitation in Dean's eyes.

There was never an outright moment where Dean would spill his difficulties in believing such optimism while the Old Man didn't want to ruin a good mood.

Their conversations always ended on a good note but there was always this reminder in Dean's head, do not get attached.

Jealous glares of other mercenary groups would stay on Dean who was getting closer to the client, knocking him back to reality that there is a difference between a personal life and a job.

The many villages they had visited rarely had any local specialties beside some occasional spices and delicacies but that was it.

In order to still make profit, the Old Man would usually ask for any weird or special things that the villagers may have found.

They would bring out old broken things, antiques and some generally odd objects.

Some were recognizable such as rare metals that contained an unusual density or toughness proving its usefulness.

But in most cases, even if something was found to be rare, the Old Man refused to give gold to the villagers.

It was not that he was a cheapskate and wanted to scam them but it was due to bandits.

If they crossed a major deal and were able to negotiate, leaving the village with a large sum of gold, this would be a reasonable incentive for an attack.

The most reasonable thing to happen that Dean would predict went along the line of destroying the crops as a warning.

In the case it was not taken as a warning, their houses would be burnt to warn other villages; people would die or get kidnapped to be make some money; everything would be pillaged until there was nothing and the females would be raped.

This was the most common things you could do however it provoked the ire of some nearby kingdoms, so unless there was great temptation, it would otherwise be unusual.

Instead, the Old Man would offer to give any items they desired that they may be short on.

An example would be hunting bows, swords, daggers, string and things that tended to be broken once used too many times.

Otherwise his only option was to give meat they received from other villagers or rations that would come in handy for any incidents.

Dean thought the Old Man was an absolute oddball as he liked to pick up junks of trash that was offered to him before smiling and giving out some rations in exchange.

The pieces of trash didn't seem too useful while others were just broken.

Whatever the Old Man was going to do with them, Dean had no idea.

Whether he was an appraiser was something he shouldn't snoop too far into however Dean was more intrigued by the behavior of the mercenaries.

They sometimes just seemed like horny beasts as they would like to pursue village girls, clueless to the wider world and take advantage of their naivety, with or without force.

He was not a hero helping everyone with a kindred soul but just turned a blind eye.

If they want to create trouble then they should resolve trouble themselves.

Because Dean learnt that in two days, karma sucks.