Chapter 43

As soon as dawn came, the two brothers headed to the mercenary camp that was located in the clearing of the forest, some distance away from the village.

The mercenaries had begun preparing from early in the morning because today was the day that the Orc Subjugation mission would begin

As they arrived at the mercenary camp, the mercenaries quickly noticed two children wandering closer and reported as much to Set, who was directly below the Mercenary Captain in their hierarchy.

The fact that the children would running errands for them had already been discussed with the rest of the mercenaries last night and everyone agreed that once the subjugation was in full swing, labour would become far too precious to send mercenaries to gather food.

“So you’re the kids – I got word about it last night,” Set greeted them.

“Where’s the Ajusshi from yesterday? We have to meet that Ajusshi.”

As Andrew glanced around the mercenary camp, looking for the mercenary they had spoke to yesterday, Set scratched the back of his head,

“You can just speak to me – you guys are going to be gathering ingredients for us right?”

“Yes!”

“Leave it to us! We’ll do a really good job!”

As the two children responded with vigour, Set led them further into the camp,

“Then, do you see that Ajusshi holding a ladle over there? Everyday, if you go to that Ajusshi, he’ll tell you what is needed, you just need to go to the market and buy everything he tells you to.”

Before he’d even finished talking, the two children were readily walking away from him, so Set had to call them back,

“Hey, wait a second. What are your names? If we’re going to be seeing you often, we should at least know them.”

“Our names?”

“Right, what are your names?”

“I’m Andrew Rothmedici!”

“And I’m Joshua Rothmedici!”

Upon hearing their bright reponses, Set came to realise that the two children were commoners.

‘Rothmedici… so they’re commoners.’

“But you guys…”

Set paused, hesitating as he recalled the young boy he had met from the Banco that time.

Andrew and Joshua’s faces seem to overlap with Rockfeller’s at places.

‘Huh there’s no way things like that happen. I must be imagining things.’

“It’s nothing. Anyway, do well from now on. Head over there now, Levan will be waiting for you there.”

“Yes sir!”

The two brothers answered loudly, and headed to the place that Set was pointing to you. They found a tent decorated like a simply kitchen and came to face a chef with a wooden prosthetic leg.

Levan.

In the past, he too had been a mercenary who stood on the battlefield but after losing a leg in a battle with an ogre, he became a chef in charge of his colleague’s meals.

Despite missing a leg, he was a very big person and so appeared incredibly intimidating to the two children.

“Are you the ones? The kids who are going to be getting ingredients from the market today?”

“Yes!”

Despite their clear response, Levan’s expression was grumpy and he looked at the two brothers with doubt,

They looked a little young to be running errands like this and he had heard it was their first time doing something like this too.

But what would they do?

It was necessary to find someone to bring the ingredients on behalf of the busy mercenaries,

‘Just looking at them like this, I don’t think they’ll try to cheat us.’

When asked to run errands like this, there would occasionally be idiots who would buy bad ingredients for cheap and fill their own stomachs with the remaining money.

That was part of the reason Levan was making the mercenaries run the errands themselves. But looking at these kids, he thought it just might work better this way too.

Thats because he thought the children would be naive.

“You guys. If you secretly run away with the money after saying you’re going to run errands, you know those Ajusshi’s out there will be going out together to catch your right?”

Despite his threat, the two brothers, who were already too excited about making money, barely registered the fear,

“We don’t do things like scams! Should we tell you where we live instead? You’ll trust is if we do that right?”

“Trust us! I’m confident we can do well!”

Rather, they showed even more enthusiasm. Levan cleared his throat, asking with a more natural expression,

“But – by the way, why are you so excited?”

“We can make money!”

“Of course we’re excited! If we just do the job well, we can earn 1 shilling a day!”

Was one shilling a huge amount of money?

Of course, for rural field workers, it wasn’t too small an amount. However for him, who had been a mercenary for a long time, one shilling was not much money.

He had lost one leg and was in charge of his colleague’s meals, but he was still getting paid similarly to his colleagues, and the salary was quite a hefty amount since the job of a mercenary was difficult and very dangerous.

“Well, for you guys, 1 shilling must be big. Okay, I’ll tell you the ingredients to buy to today.”

As Levan said so, Joshua took out a small notebook and a portable feather pen from his pocket. They were relics that had once been used by his father.

“What should we buy?”

Levan was a little surprised to see that.

“You guys… know how to write?”

“Yes, of course we know,”

It was quite surprising to see that there was a child in the rural periphery of the Empire who could read and write when eve grown adults didn’t know how to.

It was even more surprising for him, who firmly believed in that strange myth that one would only be courageous when they didn’t spend their time with reading or writing.

“Since you don’t have to memorise it all, it’s better. Then I’ll tell you what we need.”

As Levan told them which ingredients to buy for that day, Joshua diligently wrote it all down.

“I don’t mind if it’s more expensive, make sure you bring good, fresh ingredients. We’ve had some high-ranking guests show up yesterday so I have to pay more attention to the food,”

“Who’s here?”  Andrew asked,

“The mage who joined the subjugation. Because of that bastard orc sorcerer.”

“Mage? Really?”

For rural children like them, mercenaries who wielded swords and knives were of great interest, but a mage was something that was difficult to see even once in their lifetimes.

“Then where is the mage?”

“When Andrew asked with shining eyes, Levan shook his head.

They were already precious guests for the mercenaries, how could he let these kids go over and bother them.

“No. They’re high-ranking people. You can’t go and see them. Just know that they’re here.”

Joshua, who’s eyes were also sparkling brightly turned to Andrew,

“Wow! Awesome! Andrew hyung did you know that there was a mage here?”

“No I didn know! How could I know that! There weren’t even any rumours!”

Levan couldn’t help but smile as the children chatted excitedly like they’d just discovered some kind of treasure.

“Anyway, move quickly. You won’t be able to bring everything back at once with those small bodies so you might have to go back and forth a few times a day.”

“Yes sir!”