Chapter 67: Kingdom of Caerleon (4)

After mending the old man's wounds, he went out and headed straight in the opposite direction. That bloke never expressed his gratitude or gave us anything in return. He just... continued walking on the straight path without looking back.

Since we had nothing more to do, our team carried on the linear path towards the adventurer's building. As soon as the building's figure came to light, the torn adventurer signs emerged in front of us, replacing it with the mercenary clipboard.

The building's entrance showed that the adventurer guild was no longer available, and replaced by this awful exterior design.

However, that was not the end of our findings. Like the soldier had mentioned, the building looked ancient to our eyes. It gave off an expression of an abandoned building with no souls living inside.

I would not even doubt if that place had ghastly figures or sounds that would send us off to the other side. But with Fenrir and Merleen around, I had to put up a mask and toughen up an act.

The three of us walked in front of the guild and inspected every detail we could find. One thing we found was the weapons lying around the places, with bones and tattered fabrics. It was Fenrir who found these items, with Merleen digging up the remains of these unfortunate adventurers.

"What happened here?" I asked.

But I already knew the past after judging the environment. The setting did not tell me twice about the series of grim events that happened here.

There was nothing like that in the game! Well, not from what I remembered. The adventurer's guild had a separate power from the kingdoms, even when the Albion got made.

However, when I reincarnated in this game, the world changed, with the lack of power granted to the adventurer's guild.

If I had to place the puzzle pieces together, the other guilds would also have disbanded because of those conflicts. The Kingdom of Caerleon was not the only kingdom to experience a civil war.

But this place was the most prominent one we visited.

"We're here…. But there's nothing we could do but stare," I murmured, with my face resting on my palm. "How can we meet with these mercenary guilds? How can we earn money and buy a carriage?"

Fenrir and Merleen both shook their heads, unsure of what to answer my question. Those two girls looked at the scene once again before averting their eyes elsewhere.

The soldier also said that this place would get taken down within this week. And the reason behind its demolishment was strife between the kingdom and the guild. Within this week, this mercenary guild would stand its last.

After a few seconds, Fenrir had gotten in a terrible mood from all this wasted effort. Fenrir groaned and stomped her feet before storming out of the place without looking behind. I knew she would get mad about this situation. Since this place was full of humans and their civilization, Fenrir wanted to leave the kingdom.

"Hey, wait up!" I shouted.

Merleen followed close behind me. But as soon as we took a sharp turn, three recognisable men greeted our eyes. Those three people wore grey plate armours that looked like their uniforms. Each of those humans armed themselves with distinct weapons. But I doubted this crowd only wanted to flex their arsenals to travellers.

Those figures made Fenrir stop in her tracks, with her eyes staring at the statue-like people. The three of us also prepared for a fight, considering the shady-looking presence of the people in front.

However, before we could take another step, the person in front stepped forward. All three of us readied our weapons while waiting for any response from the mysterious person.

The man with a bastard sword opened his mouth and looked us in the eyes. "Are you looking for the mercenary guild?"

I gave the man a nod and replied, "Yes. I knew that this place was the adventurer's guild... But as soon as we arrived, the soldiers told us that the building became the mercenary's guild… And we also heard the news that the site would get demolished this week… Is there a way to meet with these mercenary groups?"

I assumed that this enigmatic trio was a member of the mercenary guild. Since nobody dared wander the surrounding roads, I could only guess that the members of this guild monitored the place. If any adventurer visited the site, the mercenary guild would interrogate them to their base.

However, those thoughts were plainly my speculations.

"We are the mercenary guilds that your group is looking for," the man said, and answered my theory. "Who are you, and what brings you here to the Kingdom of Caerleon?"

I slightly extended my arms, telling Fenrir to step back for a moment. If I would let Fenrir do the talking, we might end up fighting each other. And since Fenrir was already in a horrible mood, who knew what would happen after this conversation.

Leading this conversation was the wisest thing I have ever done in my life. And that was what I did. Fortunately for me, Fenrir and Merleen heeded my advice and let me do the talking.

"We're just wandering travellers that need transportation... And in order to do that, we wanted to take some jobs from the adventurer's... mercenary's guild. That's when you found us here in front of that building," I explained, hiding nothing from them. Well, except for our destination.

Since these mercenaries did not need to know where we would go, there was no reason to tell them.

The mercenary guild's representative turned around and discussed some matters with his teammates. After a few seconds of mumbling with his peers, the mercenary returned his focus to me and continued.

"Are you a strong adventurer?" the man asked with plain eyes. "Can you fight?"

"Of course, we can. We're adventurers. We are born to fight," I answered almost immediately after hearing the question.

Within a few seconds of mumbling to themselves, the three mercenaries nodded and looked at us. The man in front bowed his head and opened his mouth for the nth time.

"If you want to know more about the town and get your paycheck, you should come with us. Although the mercenary guild would be shut down within this week, it would not be enough to stop our campaign."

Before giving them my answer, I looked at Merleen and Fenrir and waited for their responses. Merleen shook her head up and down, telling me she was on board with this plan. Fenrir explained I should do whatever I could and get the things we needed for our journey. She had little patience for these things, so she let me decide for the group.

Since we did not have any options left, I accepted the man's offer.

"We want to take on tasks and buy ourselves some resources and a carriage. Thank you for helping us."

As long as we could seize our transportation, everything would become alright. Adventurers like us needed muscles to work rather than farming or doing things unrelated to our speciality. Our team could also apply for being a merchant, but that would consume most of our time crafting things we never experienced. Even though I had the mind of a modern era, I still did not know how to make things out of mould and clay.

"Then, you should follow me."

As soon as the man replied, the mercenary turned around and went to the road we walked earlier. The three of us followed the trio and went to the opposite side of the guild. It almost felt like we were following the footsteps of the man we helped a while ago from this place.

We passed by dozens of towns with children and people starving to death. This crowd's expression told us everything that they wanted food and nothing else in their life.

A mother carrying her baby approached us and begged for a loaf of bread. She looked at the mercenary and pleaded without budging an inch from the road.

I did not have any nourishments with me, so I could not help the mother. And I thought the mercenary would treat her differently since she blocked our way. I was ready to pull out my sword if the man planned to lay a finger on the mother.

But the guy in front did nothing violent. Instead, the bloke reached out in his pocket and gave the girl a piece of bread. It was not enough to call it a meal, but the mother accepted the food with a smile on her eyes.

"Thank you, kind man…. Thank you," the mother expressed her gratitude, and finally left the scene.

The man could not feed everyone. And, yet, he gave a part of his meal to the mother. As my eyes wandered around, those hungry children let out a painful wail when they saw the bread got taken away from them…

A churning sensation woke my cells up, telling me that the world I saw had an unfair system.