The library within the Marbellum did not contain any information in regards to the origins of numbers in Euphelia, or anything in detail about the people who were summoned in the past. But just because I couldn’t find any of the information I was seeking didn’t mean that I stopped visiting it. On my second visit to the library I again saw Sophie there, reading in her usual spot. It seems that while I had many options on my days off, she preferred to come to the library, it becoming a place of ‘solitude’ for her. And even though I struck up conversations with her every time resulting in her scolding me for interrupting her reading she continued to show up to the library. She became a source of information for me on sorcery, something I could not easily find out about even with the whole library at my disposal, as a lot of the literature relating to it was written in what Sophie said was the ‘Ancient Tongue’. In fact the spells that I had witnessed so far were chanted using this now-dead language, and even though it has similarities with Rahlian in places it’s still very different.
Sophie demonstrated for me on the first day how she ‘strengthens the mindspace’ and I tried it out at my usual workout spot by myself. What surprised me was that I could actually visualize some things floating around me when I closed my eyes, but they sometimes acted very oddly. They looked like embers from a fire, but a bit larger, and they also had a tendency to appear and disappear at random, like a flickering light that needed fixing. I was both elated at the prospect that I could have magical potential, but also a bit concerned about how I would actually go about doing so. I wouldn’t want to inform the Jenusians that I actually had magical potential, as the group that lived at the magisterium had their freedoms restricted more than we did. Also there was a chance that Sophie could get in trouble for telling me about the whole meditation thing, which made me get lost in my thoughts to the point that I just gave up and decided that I would tackle this issue at some point in the future.
I brought my short sword with me when we had swordsmanship practice and got some advice from Janis about what I must do in regards to maintenance on the sword, and also how he would use a sword as short as this if he was in my place. He even made the off-hand suggestion that there were sword styles which were specialized in dual-wielding and that kind of sword would be used in the ‘off hand’ and a longer sword in the main hand. With the Ironguard swordsmanship we were learning, that kind of sword could only be used in confined spaces, or when you’re fighting with many people around you, therefore having less room to maneuver and fewer places where you can be struck from.
Janis’ uncle was a blacksmith, and he suggested I visit him to get some tools to make sure my sword remained sharp, after which I thanked him and was happy to know that Janis was willing to recommend me a place which wouldn’t try and scam me, like the one I bought the short-sword from. When Janis found out I paid 5 silver crowns for the sword, scabbard, and belt he was very angry and scolded me for being an idiot and not knowing the prices of such things, which I felt was uncalled for considering I still don’t have a lot of ‘Jenusian common sense’ even after living here for a while.
When we got our next allowance I decided it was high time to visit Janis’ uncle on ‘Iron Street’. This wasn’t the most accurate description as Iron street wasn’t just a single street for many centuries already, although it did start off that way. Now the main street was dominated by the more reputable and affluent stores while the ones off the main path were where Janis’ uncle had his smithy. I had bought a cloak to make myself as nondescript as possible on the way, which already ate through a fifth of my five-silver-crown allowance, but I thought it was a worthy investment as my noble-looking tunic would attract unwanted attention from people I would prefer to avoid.
Micah, Janis’ uncle, was a lot ruder than his nephew, and he originally mistook me for someone who he could swindle out of his money, but that plan went out the window the moment he found out that I was trained by his nephew, after which he was a lot more cordial and actually gave me a stone to use for sharpening my sword as a gift. From my impressions so far it seems blacksmiths are viewed negatively by society as a whole, as they seem to have a culture of swindling people out of money, getting them to purchase things way above market price unknowingly and such. But as I got to talking with Micah who did not know of my supposed role as a ‘divine messenger’ he opened up to me about a lot of things which I thus far had no idea of.
As we were discussing things I made an off-handed comment about how expensive some of the better-looking weapons in Micah’s shop were, he suggested I pick up some work as a mercenary if I was struggling for funds. This was the first time I had even heard of this option so I inquired further about the mercenary profession and found out some useful information. Apparently mercenaries were the only way out of poverty for a lot of poor commoners, and that while the title of mercenary was not viewed favorably by either the commoners or the nobles, mercenaries as a whole were tolerated to a certain extent by both.
There was a mercenary guild that spanned the whole of Euphelia, and while it was not a centralized organization and its rules were not followed stringently by its members, it provided a place for people with martial skills to make a living. While dangerous, the rewards that Micah spoke of were appealing to me, although I still had no idea as to how I would go about actually becoming a mercenary.
The Jenusians still had a curfew in place for us, and when I mentioned that I wouldn’t have the ability to become a mercenary due to other commitments, Micah informed me that my understanding must be flawed in regards to the work he was talking about. In my mind mercenaries were soldiers for hire that signed up for work that spanned many days, and fought for their employers, as it was in the history of Earth.
On Jenusia however the term mercenary was a lot more broad, Micah explained. Any kind of work, some of it lasting as little as a few hours was all aggregated through the mercenary guild, with them taking a portion of the reward as a fee. This was something I could actually do, and Micah actually worked as a mercenary in some of his younger years, proudly showing off some of the scars on his body that still remained.
As Micah regaled me with his exploits as a mercenary, and told me about what the pay was like for some of the odd-jobs such as collection of herbs that grew in the vicinity of Krilos, and even working as security or escorts for certain big shots, the guild began looking like more of a temp agency from Earth than anything as fearsome as swords for hire.
My enthusiasm for actually picking up some work as a mercenary must have shown on my face as Micah decided to inform me of some of the less savory details of the guild. Apparently the guild was a force in and of itself, and that it was not a good idea to be on the bad side of their organization. He told me the story of how a count in the Kingdom of Hessia, which was nowhere near Jenusia, took on a contract with one of the larger mercenary bands which existed at the time. He expected to profit greatly from conquering the dominion of one of his neighbors, and decided to spend every last penny he had on the campaign. But his expectations were let down, as after conquering his neighbors land, he found it to be more desolate than his own. When the mercenaries demanded the payment that was still due to them after the conclusion of the campaign, he failed to pay up and said that he had spent every last penny already.
After this news the band was offended, and informed the guild of the failure of the count to pay, and left the count’s lands. The count, thinking that he managed to get away with failing to pay the mercenaries, went on with his life as usual, but it turned out that the mercenaries would get their money one way or the other. The mercenary guild as a whole put out a call to arms, and assembled a huge force of many thousands of mercenaries, which included those that the count failed to pay. They conquered the count's lands, and held all nobles within the count’s lands for ransom. They basically established a temporary mercenary state within the county's lands, and after about a year of negotiations relating to ransom, auctioned off the deed for the county to any who wished to buy it. The King of Hessia, not wishing for his Kingdom’s land to be auctioned off, paid the mercenary guild reparations, and thus reclaimed legal ownership of the land.
This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
I wore a shocked expression on my face by the end of Micah’s tale, this being the first time I heard it. The nobles of Euphelia wouldn’t include parts of their history which paint them in a negative light, so this must have been one of those tales that was passed down within the mercenaries’ grapevine. Micah even told me this wasn’t the first time such a thing had happened, and that some mercenaries even joked that the guild was a ‘landless kingdom’ which migrated every time an employer failed to make payment.
At first I thought that the Mercenary Guild was something like an ‘Adventurers Guild’ which was a common trope in many fantasy stories, but when I heard that they could throw their weight around to the point that they could attack landed nobles made me discard such trivial thoughts immediately.
Micah again recommended me to just try out one ‘commission’ in the Guild, and see what doing work for it was like before forming any opinions, and that he actually managed to get the funds to start up his smithy by saving up for a few years as a mercenary. There were many things I desire to buy for myself, and if I had to wait for the monthly allowances from the Jenusians then I would have to wait at least a year to buy a proper sword, some different clothes, and even just some of the food that I saw being sold in the street stalls in the city.
The Mercenary Guild was based just outside the trade district, and while its size might have intimidated me before, after the Magisterium and the Marbellum the guild paled in comparison. There were just as many rough-looking people out and about as there were on Iron Street, and my cloak allowed me to blend into the crowd just fine, with many others wearing clothes which concealed what weapons they carried.
There were men in mismatched sets of armor calling out at the entrance, recruiting for the mercenary bands, and inside the smell of sweat was extremely disorienting. There was no pretty girl receptionist within the guild, in fact I don’t think I saw a single woman within the guild at all, and the gruff looking man at one of the counters listed off some of the commissions available for newcomers, with no notice board showing the commissions as the majority of mercenaries, were commoners and couldn’t read.
The commission’s each came with a penalty if I failed to fulfill it, and while I didn’t particularly feel broke with the four silver crowns I still had, paying one if I failed to collect something within a week didn’t exactly sit well with me. The reward wasn’t even proportionate, as the most I could make from one of these starting commissions was one silver crown. I decided to trust Micah’s advice and took on the commission to collect ten Basalroots, a drawing of which the clerk at the guild showed me. I had to pay a silver crown as a deposit on taking on the commission, but the clerk didn’t even ask me for a name as the guild only considered you a full member once you completed a commission.
That evening I convinced Max to let me borrow his fancy-looking satchel for the day after, as I didn’t actually own anything that could hold the Basalroots in the first place. The next morning after eating a hearty breakfast at the dining hall, I saddled up on Sorok and rode out to the forests around Krilos, where I was informed the roots I was looking for grew. I was shown a picture of a tree at the guild which looked quite withered, but apparently was the normal look for that kind of plant.
If such roots could be found within the vicinity of Krilos it didn’t really make sense to me why there was even a need to commission others to fetch them for you, but apparently even the forests around the capital weren’t entirely safe, with there being a chance of wild animals or some of the less-dangerous magical beasts appearing every now and then.
Now I wasn’t entirely confident in my ability to handle a wild boar or something like it, but the allure of money overruled many of my concerns, and this wouldn’t be my first outing outside the capital so I rode with confidence and excitedly scanned some of the trees I rode by searching for a sign of a withered one.
The forest was tranquil, with the sounds of birds or insects now and then making an appearance, but I didn’t see a single person for the few hours I spent searching for a basalroot. As my stomach began urging me to return to civilization and get some more food into my belly, I decided to try my luck on another day off and hopefully reclaim my chance of getting my silver crown back and one more with it later.
On my way back to Krilos I heard a man’s scream a short distance away from the dirt path, my instincts screamed at me to mind my own business and pretend I didn’t hear it entirely, but the ‘good samaritan’ my mother tried to raise was still there within me and he made himself known as I yanked Sorok’s reins to the left and urged him to speed up with the heels of my feet.
The clearing I eventually made presented a very dangerous scene that I was not ready for at all. My thoughts at first was that someone must have fallen and broken something in the forest while being out on a commission like I was, but the sight of about a dozen small humanoid creatures and a few more dead ones surrounding a man who was backed up against a tree was frightening.
The creatures were Goblins, I recognized their appearance from one of the books in the library which detailed the beasts and ‘rimon’ that could be found on this part of the continent. They were not very dangerous on their own, but their threat increased substantially once they grouped up and presented a challenge to anyone who wasn’t a mounted knight or a magi.
Sorok wasn’t a warhorse, so I knew that if I charged into the midst of the goblins who were surrounding the already-wounded man he would become scared and might even throw me off his back, which hasn’t happened once so far but did sound painful. My sword as well wasn’t long enough to reach the goblins from horseback, so I hurriedly dismounted him and charged into the backs of the goblins who only noticed my presence once one of them let out a shrill scream from being stabbed in the back.
While the weapons the goblins were wielding didn’t look to threatening, I wasn’t wearing any armor and a wooden club or a rusted weapon that the goblin must have picked up on the ground somewhere wouldn’t harm and armored man, it would certainly cut through my tunic like a knife through butter, and beyond.
I only killed the one goblin I managed to attack from the back, and rushed forward towards the man who was trying to act menacingly while backed up against the tree.
“Hey you alright?” I shouted, hoping that my Rahlian was good enough for him to understand.
“Yeah I think I’ll live, can you fight?” He shouted back, while maintaining a swordstance with his sword, it being a bit longer than mine but not as long as a longsword.
“Not that well, my sword is quite short but I can handle at least a few of them” I answered, the goblins weren’t that tall, and they weren’t very heavy either. From the force I felt as I stabbed the first one in the back, I thought that they must weigh less than 50kg each, so the force with which they would attack wasn’t that threatening as long as I didn’t have my rear facing them.
“Okay, I’ll rush the ones to the left, you just make sure they don’t hit me in the back alright?” He explained his plan, and after I nodded he added a loud and raspy “GO!”
The way he slashed at the goblins didn’t look anything like the Ironguard style of swordsmanship, it was a lot more aggressive which was a good thing in this situation. There were still eleven of them, and if we wanted to have a chance of getting out of here alive we would need to kill a few shortly, before mopping up the rest later.
The sword in my hand felt heavier and heavier with every slash and stab that I parried, it was a good thing I was training outside of the swordsmanship lessons, as I don’t think my stamina would have lasted longer than a few minutes in my older state.
The man was a menace compared to me, and as I was struggling to hold off three of the goblins, he had already killed four. I didn’t really have the opportunity to see how it had happened, but after I saw him targeting the other five who were trying to make their way behind me, I was seriously impressed.
His swordsmanship was like a raging tide, unstoppable and harsh. He didn’t look like he was that much older than I was, so the level of ‘refinement’ was still not present within his movement, but I could tell already that if he didn’t die an early death, he would become a great swordsman one day.
But even a great swordsman in the making would have to fear a pack of goblins, as both I and the man sustained further injuries throughout the fight. I received quite a nasty stab past the flank of my torso from a rusty spear. The good thing was that my adrenaline didn’t let me register any pain, and the only reason I knew that one of the nasty green fucks managed to get me was the sound of my tunic tearing.
The man wore some kind of armor over his clothing, so the stabs that did get through his defense didn’t harm him as much as they would me, so he continued to fight until the only remaining goblins were two of the ones I was fighting. I couldn’t even manage to kill one since my first kill right at the beginning of the fight, and the most I could do was cut off the hand of the one on my left.
While I was already reeling from my exhaustion, I realized that there were only two of them left alive, and decided to shout for help from the man I had just helped.
“HEY, WHY AREN”T YOU HELPING ME OUT OVER HERE?” I shouted, perhaps thinking that the bastard went for my horse and was about to leave.
“Hey man, you said you could handle a few of them” I heard from behind me, I dared to look behind and saw that the man had already sheathed his blade, and was treating the wounds he received from before I showed up.
I shot him a bewildered look, before I saw him just shrug and continue on bandaging his arm.
“I’m just trying to be nice here, treat those two as a learning experience” He replied with a chuckle.