Chapter 22

Carl tried to shake off the unsavoury thoughts that suddenly popped up, telling himself there would be no way an Orc Sorcerer would show up.

And Rockfeller, who caught onto his bad mood like a creepy spirit, asked why,

“What’s wrong all of a sudden?”

“What do you mean?”

“I just thought you looked pale, would it really be a problem if something like what I said became a reality?”

“As if, it’s just a simple orc subjugation. What is said can only be seen when the orcs are at war or about to start a war. It’s not something you can see normally,”

Then Rockefeller, with his excellent acting, pulled a very shocked face,

“War? Does that mean if there’s a Special Orc or Sorcerer then there’s a war?”

“That’s not it. It just means that in order for the things you said to happen, the orcs around here must start a war. I don’t know about special orcs but the orc sorcerer is really rare even within orcs,”

“Then what if there’s no war and the orc sorcerer is in the group you need to subdue?”

Rockefeller asked him again,

“That’s…”

“If it was like that then it would be a problem right? Right?”

Carl could not deny it because it was true.

“Well, if there’s an orc sorcerer – it would be like a mage in human terms. So of course there would be a problem. How can we catch a sorcerer without any preparation when we are mercenaries who use swords. It’s not like we’re master assassins like the Ismail Great Family either, that we can pull off targeted assassinations.”

“Then what would happen?”

“I told you it wouldn’t happen. And Orc Sorcerer is so rare that they can’t be so easily seen, so it’s a useless worry,”

“But what if there was one?”

Carter, who was listening inside the store, was a little nervous due to Rockefeller’s persistent offense.

‘What is he trying to do? The thing about the orc sorcerer was supposed to be a secret!’

While Carter, who seemed to be worried about offending the Lord, worried about things silently, the Mercenary Captain Carl felt a spark of annoyance when dealing with Rockefeller,

He just thought he was a lazy boy who persistently asked about useless things.

“As if it would be a big deal, it just becomes more tedious is all,”

“Tedious? How?”

“It seems you’ve got a lot of curiosity, since you keep asking useless questions. All we need is to get a mage who can stand against the sorcerer and suppress them that way, that’s all. Either way, a mage will solve the problem,”

“Then is there a mage within the Hound Mercenaries?”

“Do you think mages are that common? We’ll have to bring one in separately,”

“You wouldn’t give up right?”

If you came across the ambush that was the existence of the Orc Sorcerer, any normal mercenary would likely give up the mission, considering the risk associated with the work.

It would be an impossible problem to resolve with their own strength after all, so why bother taking on such a task?

However, there were several reasons why the Hound Mercenaries could not easily give up on their mission.

“Well, even if it’s just for the penalty, we wouldn’t give up easily,”

There was a penalty they would have to pay under the contract if they gave up on their mission straight away, but for the Hound Mercenaries, there was another reason why they could not give up on their mission easily –

Their fame.

‘As if we’d just give up the mission. Things would just get more cumbersome is all.’

“We’ve never given up on our duties, I don’t know about completely irrational jobs but if it’s possible to some extent then we tend to go through with it somehow, even if in the end we lose out on money. Since this is the line of business we’re in – it means we can increase our price,”

Carl continued,

“You don’t know how the Hound Mercenaries got so famous do you?”

“Is it because you completed all the missions you were hired for?”

“That’s right, if someone entrusts us with work, we make sure to do everything we were hired to do, by any means,”

“So money is the only problem then,”

Carl slowly narrowed his eyes, although the boy he was talking to was not even 20 years old yet, it somehow didn’t feel like he was talking to someone that young.

“Anyway, no matter what, there won’t be any giving up on missions easily. That’s the reputation and fame – the pride that we of the Hound have built up so far,”

“Then, the thing I was worried about – if an Orc Sorcerer does show up, you would call a mage and finish the mission right?”

Carl was silent but his gaze confirmed it.

That they would do exactly that.

“It looks like our conversation became unnecessarily long. I’ll come by sometime again to pick up the money I left with you,”

Rockefeller smiled brightly at Carl who left with those parting words.

‘They will definitely need a mage and whether it’s the Captain or the Lord, they will need money one way or another since mages are always paid upfront. It’s not like they can pull money they don’t have out of the air either.’

Of course, there was the option of writing a separate contract to promise payment with the Lord or the Mercenaries but a mage wouldn’t come to a place like this, just on the promise of money – since they would always ask for physical money over a promissory note.

That’s why,

‘They’ll be coming back here to borrow money,’