-Chapter Twenty-Eight-
A Commission Well-Complete
Any playfulness and light heartedness Aelius was feeling from the last few, relaxing weeks of travelling, quickly faded away in the face of Saki’s story.
The tone in her voice was grave and serious, and was one he knew all too well.
The betrayal she described to him, he knew all too well. The innocence and naivety that brought about that betrayal, he knew all too well. The madness for vengeance, the sanity that only remained because of one single goal. The second chance to not right the wrong, but drag down the enemy who had pushed them off the cliff in the first place.
He knew them all far too well.
“And, was she telling the truth?” Aelius asked Aria who was deeply focused on Saki.
Lia sat cross-legged in the corner of the room, watching on inquisitively.
“So you’re saying you’re this higher being of existence from another realm or plane?” Aria asked.
“It appears to be more complicated than that,” Saki’s pink eyes glanced around the room and landed on Aelius’ gaze. “I am no higher being. If the strongest human in this realm is at the Tenth Tier as you’ve described, then I was simply a human at the Twentieth Tier, because my world had lesser restrictions than your world. Is it more easily understandable if I describe it like such?” she asked.
“She’s telling the truth. All of it,” Aria remarked with arms crossed.
“Okay well…” Aelius glanced at Aria and then back to Saki, calmly gazing at her. “Do you want revenge?” he straightforwardly asked her.
She didn’t respond immediately, biting her lip as she pondered for a brief moment.
“Truthfully… I do.” Aelius frowned and retreated into his mind in deep thought for a short breath.
So there’s another plane of existence out there…
For some reason, the thought didn’t surprise him. In fact, it had some sort of familiarity.
But he couldn’t pin his finger on it. It was the same feeling as when he couldn’t recall other details.
It was as though the memory was missing from his brain, it was just completely blank.
“But you do realise it won’t be easy to break the limitations on this world and escape it, especially as you are right now?” he asked her and she dejectedly nodded.
“But it is possible,” she added. “I just have to get stronger.”
“Stronger… well, you can travel with us then. If you do get stronger, I’ve got some things I could also use your help with. What do you say?”
“Ah…” Saki blushed. “I-if you’re okay with it… I’d love to join you, Aelius.”
“Good,” he smugly smiled, before noticing Aria glaring at him. “We’ve got another member added to the family. Now, since that’s settled,” he reached up and grabbed Aria by the waist from both sides, causing her to quickly jolt and her face turn tomato-red.
“I’ve got some business to attend to.”
Lifting Aria off of his lap, he deposited her onto her feet, brushed some dust off his legs and then left the tent without looking behind him.
—-----------------------
Lia watched Aelius give them a friendly smile as he stepped out the tent, but as soon as he turned away, she saw his expression turn dark and shuddered.
However, she had no idea what was fouling his mood.
Aria on the other hand, was frozen on her feet still across the room and Lia looked at her with a frown.
“Are you okay?” she asked Aria who snapped out of it.
“Yes!? Yes, yes. I’m okay,” the blue haired prodigy gave Lia a forced smile and then turned away, and Lia noticed the corner of Aria’s lips turn upward.
“Ehehe…” she giggled, and Lia noticed her cheeks flush red.
I can understand why Aelius has such a hard time with her. She turns into a massive weirdo whenever it comes to him, Lia thought, rolling her eyes, before looking to Saki who was innocently and nervously fidgeting with her fingers, in the room with them.
For someone who was supposed to be a higher life form or whatever, she seemed far more timid than one would have expected.
—-----------------------
“Damn hormones,” Aelius muttered as he took a seat at a nearby tree trunk and took deep breaths.
I don’t feel an ounce of sexual desire, yet my body is having natural reactions, he sighed heavily, dismissing the raging war in his crotch.
Saki’s story reignited an intrinsic impatience deep within Aelius, her words reminded him of his purpose and he suddenly felt anxiousness tugging at him.
He wanted nothing more than to unwind. His blade was tingling, his finger was trigger-happy.
He desperately wanted to feel that same euphoria of slashing to pieces and suffocating the life out of a Devil.
But as he took deep breaths, clarity slowly returned to him and he suppressed his restlessness. Finally, he let out a chuckle as his raging heartbeat calmed and he looked up at the sun in the sky.
“Patience, patience,” he assured himself and rose to his feet.
His moment will come, there’s no point rushing into it.
Now somewhat more relaxed, he turned away and began to make his way to the central camp where the Daniesvich family was staying.
On his way across, he caught a group of shadows emerging from the tree line and stole a glance across, to apprehensively find Owen and the other party leaders returning to the camp with grim expressions on their faces.
The twin-swords captain of Fanden was the first to notice Aelius curiously gazing at him and Aelius saw the expression on his face freeze.
The remaining three soon noticed him as well and all stopped dead in their tracks, nervously looking at him.
Though he found it odd, tilting his head at them in wonder, he didn’t inquire further and disappeared into the Daniesvich tent, wondering what all that was about.
—-----------------------
When Mercenary Lius had returned, Laura, the Fanden Captain, Owen and the last party captain had noticed he was completely drenched in blood, in addition to the girl he carried in his arms.
They could sense an impatience in his curt tone as he exchanged words with the Daniesvich Lord, their employer, and then he quickly disappeared into his tent with the girl.
Laura and the other three exchanged glances before one of them finally spoke.
“No doubt, he’s been up all night and probably had one hell of a time,” the twin-swords captain remarked.
“Then you know what that means!” Laura waved her hand authoritatively. “Time for us to do our part! While Lius rests and regains his energy, we will patrol the encampment perimetre,” she announced. The other three nodded in agreement and within a few minutes, they had small groups of three of their underlings rotating through the trees.
Not long passed by of Laura tending to her blade when the three other leaders approached her. “We received an interesting report,” they began to say as they caught her attention.
“We’re gonna go check it out. You comin’?” the twin-sword captain asked.
Needless to say, Laura did not hesitate to join them.
They trudged out into the dark canopy, hot, humid and wet, curious as to what they’ll find when a nauseating stench filled their nostrils.
It was the very surreal, familiar but overwhelming scent of blood and as they ducked through leaves and bushes, barely able to see a few metres ahead of them in the shadowy shade, when Owen ahead of them suddenly yelped.
The three quickly joined him to see what he was looking at, gasping to find a group of corpses brutally violated around them.
One body was slung over a nearby tree branch, another two were impaled and the last was face first in a pile of leaves and dried blood.
While Laura and the other three looked to each other nervously, she received a transmission through her party’s Mana net.
“Captain, we found another one.”
Continuously, report after report came in and with each transmission, the dread on the four leaders’ faces grew.
“This looks like Aelius’ handy-work,” Owen said. “It was the same on the night with the wolves,” and the Fanden captain grimly grunted.
“When we don’t see him fight, he leaves behind a massacre. When we do see him fight, he sticks to using Mana. I don’t think he intended on us finding this mess. He’s in a different league to us,” the man shrugged and turned back to the camp, gesturing for them to follow.
With nothing left to see there, they returned but as they were emerging out of the tree line, they saw Aelius crossing the paddock of the camp towards their employer’s tent and nervously looked at each other.
The awe and respect they built for him in the last few days was only growing, but so did their fear.
—-----------------------
For the first time in the trip, Aelius was entering the Daniesvich tent, and he was surprised to find it was quite spacious inside.
With an enlarged interior through spatial magic artefacts, they had all sorts of furniture and quality of life benefits set up that the Mercenaries outside can’t even dream of.
The Daniesvich Lord was found sitting at a desk at the end, speeding over piles of paper when he noticed Aelius enter.
At first he was squinting when he went to fetch his monoglass, but as soon as he hooked it on and saw it was Aelius, he sprung to his feet with a smile.
“You’ve come sooner than I expected, Lius, my son!” he exclaimed with his arms wide open.
“Please, take a seat,” he offered, gesturing to a nearby couch and taking the sofa opposite to him.
“Once again, please accept my heartfelt gratitude for saving the life of my daughter,” he sincerely dipped his head. “I’ve asked you to come see me to discuss your extra remuneration, once we arrive at Leina. So,” The Daniesvich Lord opened his palms. “Firstly, I have something to ask you.”
Aelius frowned but nodded, waiting for him to go on.
“Just between you and me for now,” The Lord lowered his voice. “Are you willing to wed my daughter?”
“No thank you,” Aelius immediately answered with a sharp tone and the Lord gave a hearty laugh.
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“That was quick!” he answered. “Her family has good money, she’s well-mannered, intelligent, and beautiful just like her mother was, if I do say so myself. But I can see that’s not enough for you,” he sighed like it was such a pity.
“With all due respect, this was a one-time gig to begin with,” Aelius responded with a shrug.
“You don’t intend to settle down in Leina?” the Lord asked, though his tone had no ulterior motive in it. “It’s a nice place, you know. The home-city of my deceased wife.”
“I don’t intend to stay in Farrien,” Aelius clarified.
“I see,” the Lord gave a small breath, but a warm smile. “It’s understandable. With your talents as a Mercenary, you will have no shortage of work in the mainland.”
The teenager opposite him simply silently nodded.
“Well, let’s not talk much further about that then. What do you want for extra payment? Speak your mind. If it is possible, I will do all I can. Nothing compares to the life of my precious daughter.”
“Hmm…” Aelius tilted his head, dwelling into deep thought. “You operate in trade, right?”
“Yes!” the Lord’s eyes lit up. “Our family conducts business at a medium-tier of trade. At times, we’ve even had dealings with the King. Our twelve wagons on this trip are filled with goods Jessica and I collected over the last few months in preparation to sell at Leina. The single reason why we had to make this trip on foot instead of taking a Warp Gate was because of the sheer quantity and quality of magic stones we are transporting,” the man explained and Aelius nodded.
“I figured as much, I already knew about how high density magic stones can interfere with the Warp Crystals.”
He licked his lips.
“What’s the highest grade of magic stones you have?”
“A Grades. We only have A Grades at the top end,” the Lord responded.
“How many?” Aelius asked.
“Fifteen.”
“Wow,” the teenage boy responded, genuinely impressed. “You guys are doing pretty good for yourself, huh. Well,” Aelius leaned forward. “Are you willing to part with four of them?”
The Lord considered his request for a moment before finally nodding.
“I am willing, on one condition,” the older man counter-offered.
“Let’s hear it,” Aelius crossed his arms.
“Be friends with Jessica, and if someday she ever needs your help, please don’t refuse her. At least, consider her request, on account of the magic stones I am giving you today. Consider it a gift to a friend.”
Aelius deeply exhaled.
“Not a businessman for nothing, you are. Well, it’s no trouble. If Jessica and I were to ever meet again, I won’t treat her coldly like a stranger, you can rest assured. My favours are worth quite a bit but, on account of the magic stones, I’ll accept your condition.”
The man returned a beaming smile to Aelius.
“For someone so young, you’ve got a lot of sense. I just wish my stupid son was more like you in that regards.”
At the mention of Damien, the atmosphere in the room fell cold.
“Putting aside that he invaded the privacy of one of my people,” Aelius sat back with his arms crossed. “He was the one who endangered the life of your precious daughter.”
The Lord pursed his lips.
“I know. And I’ve told Jessica-” the Lord licked his lips with a frown on his face. “Why did they take her? Why target her?”
“They weren’t targeting just her,” Aelius explained with a wave of his hand. “They were targeting every single one of us. They just happened to start with her because they thought we’d all panic if she gets taken out first. They were trying to conquer and divide us.”
At his words, the Lord’s eyes lit up with fear.
“My Goddess, we were subject to such a nefarious plan without even knowing?” he reached up and wiped his brow of sweat with a huff.
“I just happened to stop them before they could carry out the rest of their plan, that’s all there is to it,” Aelius shrugged.
“I see…” the Lord grimly nodded. “You really are amazing, Mercenary Lius.”
They fell silent for a moment, Aelius only gazing at the Lord as the opposite, older gentleman looked down to his hands with conflict and frustration.
“I-I… I asked Jessica if she would forgive her brother or not. Truth be told, I am furious at him, but I’m also to blame for raising him wrong. Jessica had the upbringing of her mother, but she died at childbirth with Damien. I was always too busy with my business to supervise him every moment of each day. There was a time he was a lovable and gleeful child, but at some point, before I even knew it, he had veered off track.”
The Lord clenched his fists.
“Jessica has said she has forgiven him, but she will not let him off the hook. Together, we’ve decided to send him to the Church for recorrection. This incident helped me realise that my attempts of excusing him and protecting him have only been harming him.”
He looked up to Aelius with uncertainty in his eyes.
“I will give you additional compensation for the incident with Ria, if you are willing. I’ll increase your pay.”
Aelius bit his lip at the man’s offer.
“So, we were wronged, our privacy violated, and you want to just give me a bit of money and walk away? Do you take me to be that kind of person?”
He leaned forward.
“Do you want to slap me across the cheek right now, spit on my face, and then pay me 20 silver coins and expect it to be all good? It’s not a matter of monetary value, it’s a matter of dignity.” Aelius slammed his fist on the table in front of them, raising his voice. “We put up with all of the annoyances and hassle with keeping our faces hidden; we ate in our tents, and even on hot sweaty days, we kept our masks on. But all of that effort goes to shit because of your son. And of all people, he’s set his eyes on my women? They told me about the way he talked to them. If I were there, I would’ve cut his fucking tongue out!”
Aelius sat back and crossed his arms.
“And you want to make it go away with a bit of cash? C’mon, you know how the world works.”
The Lord could only nod disheartenedly.
“Then what do you want? What will allow my son to keep his tongue?”
“I don’t want anything,” Aelius clicked his tongue. “I don’t want your money over this stupid bullshit, and I don’t want to beat the shit out of him either, cause it’s not worth it. I didn’t come here to exploit you,” he waved his hand dismissively. “Just make sure he doesn’t burn the Church down when he’s there.”
Aelius rose to his feet.
“And keep him away from Ria and Lia. I’m off,” he raised his hand over his shoulder.
Before the Lord could speak further, Aelius vacated the tent, leaving him flustered behind.
The Daniesvich Lord stepped out as the teenager opposite him disappeared, and he turned to notice Jessica at the door with a tray of tea.
She watched dejectedly as Aelius didn’t even look behind him and he was out of view, and the Lord gave his daughter a sympathetic sigh.
“I’m sorry, Jessie. He’s upset, rightfully so.”
“No, don’t be, father,” Jessica smiled warmly back to him, turning away with the tray. “We reap what we sow.
“But that’s between us. You and him can still get along, I’ve spoken to him about it.”
“Perhaps,” Jessica simply smiled. “Maybe someday, Damien can apologise to them. That would be enough so long as he says he’s sorry. They don’t even need to accept it.”
—-----------------------
After taking a day and one night to rest, the convoy set out again. The remaining week of travel could only have been described as uneventful compared to the abduction of Jessica. The Mercenaries had fallen into a rhythm after being inspired by Aelius, now flawlessly carrying out their autonomous duties.
They would occasionally come across the odd herd of monsters, but neither Aelius nor Aria needed to get involved because along with the other Mercs, Lia had been practising her Sorcery techniques.
She was more than enough to provide them the support they needed to take on the dangers and obstacles they encountered.
And soon, they came upon the final mountain separating Hamadia and Leina.
The danger was now behind them, as all that was left was a hike and the descent.
Each night they camped, Aelius would be seen making rounds around the camp slowly with Saki glued to his side.
She was slowly learning to walk again, though shaky and heavily dependent on Aelius’ support.
By the time they reached the summit of the mountain, Saki was able to wobble to the edge of the clifface on her own and look over the city of Leina in awe and wonder.
Under the mid-noon sun, the city sparkled marvelly, spanning dozens of kilometres beyond the horizon, bustling with life. It was the first time she had seen such a view in a millennia .
—-----------------------
Leina, one of the three major regions of Northern Farrien, was the southernmost city under the rulership of the Aerianne Archduchy.
The Duke of Leina was a man named Alfonzo Alakary and he was known to have ties to the Merchant Palaces.
The city was bestowed along with the title of Duke unto Alakary by the King two decades ago during the Great Empirical War in exchange for his great contribution to supplying the soldiers with food, weapons and armour.
The city of Leina was a trade-city powerhouse, being the only point between Central Farrien and the rest of the Continent further North.
Leina was the only official Warp Gate that connected to the Capital.
Of course, there were unofficial methods of warping to bypass Leina, but ordinary, clean commonfolk would always traverse with the use of Leina’s Warp Gate.
Due to that, any movement of goods that reached Farrien Capital and the Southern region was heavily reliant on the City of Leina, allowing the region to flourish.
Duke Alakary was also an intelligent ruler, unlike some of his other ‘colleagues’ who exploited their people and caused their own territory to collapse.
Under his rule, the city’s productivity only amplified, turning it into what it was today: a utopia of capitalism.
It was also the reason why the Daniesvich Mercantile Organisation wished to move to Leina, in search of greater prospects.
—-----------------------
The disparity between the rich and the poor was always enormous in an aristocratic society.
Where power is monopolised by a select group of people, be it monetary, military or everything else, the manual labourers and laymen of the territory always end up shouldering the heavy burden of supporting everyone else.
This fact was reflected in itself by the difference in currency.
For a family of five to buy enough food to survive for a week, they would need a minimum of 8 bronze coins. 100 bronze coins was equivalent to 1 silver coin. In other words, 1 silver coin can support a family of five for several months.
Lastly, 100 silver coins was equivalent to 1 gold coin. 1 gold coin could support a family of five for over two years, if they lived frugally.
And, in many cases, commoners were stuck with only making a wage of 20 bronze coins a week - places that exploited child labour would only pay their workers 2 or 3 bronze coins. Meanwhile, a single custom-tailored dress for a Noblewoman would cost 70-140 gold coins on the lower end.
Additionally, due to the aristocratic societal nature of it being a crime to wear the same dress to two or more events, occasions, parties or meetings, Noblewomen would often have wardrobes of dozens of dresses. While a family of five commoners would be considered lucky if they had a modest three-bedroom house of 8 to 10 square-metres, a Noblewoman may have a villa all to herself of 30 square metres.
And that is not even including the remaining Aristocrats in the family.
Such was the enormous disparity in not only Farrien, but all of the Sacred Continent, and Aelius looked with disdain on his face at the pouch of 70 gold coins before him.
“Is something not to your liking?” The Daniesvich Lord asked tensely, sitting across from Aelius at the desk in his new office that awaited their convoy when they arrived at the new manor.
“How much are the others being paid?” Aelius asked.
“As the others are all Silver Mercenaries, their wage is roughly 70 silver coins per party.”
Aelius frowned behind his mask at the pouch.
“Why are you paying me so much? I already agreed to take the magic stones as extra for safely bringing Jessica back.”
“And you will get to take those magic stones, rest assured,” the Lord smiled to him gingerly.
“This pouch includes your base wage as an A-rank Mercenary and Ria and Lia as B-rank Mercs, as well as your exceptional performance in general, outside of saving my daughter, and lastly, I added in some extra as a tip, from personal satisfaction.”
At his explanation, Aelius’ eyes narrowed at the pouch, before he swiped it and tucked it away in his coat pocket.
“It was nice working with you. I hope your business endeavours go well,” he said as he rose to his feet.
“Thank you, Lius. Will you be leaving right away?” the Lord asked and Aelius nodded.
“Our trip already took too much time due to the several delays. I’m well behind schedule.”
“Very well. I’ve already arranged the butler to show you the way to the magic stones. Pick out whichever ones you want,” the Lord gestured to the grey-haired butler in the corner of the room who gave a short bow to Aelius.
“Alright. Thanks for the trouble,” Aelius waved over his shoulder as turned away and without another word, curtly left the room.
—-----------------------
It was a heartfelt goodbye as when Aelius and the rest of his party were about to leave through the main gate, they were called to wait by a group behind them and turned to see all their fellow Mercenaries had gathered before them, wearing bright smiles on their faces.
The three party leaders and Owen stepped forward, expressing their thanks and giving their farewells.
For a moment, Aelius was taken aback, but he ended it with a warm smile.
Yes, this was also a part of Mercenary work. Creating connections and making friends.
They may meet again on a different commission someday in the future, or one of them might make it big, becoming a connection worth forming.
Sincerely, Aelius returned his goodbyes alongside with the girls, and then turned around and left the job behind.
It was a commission well-complete.