Lawrence’s perspective:
It took almost an hour for Viscount Starshine to arrive at the mercenary office. Apparently he also ran a clinic in town and was tending to a customer. I’m not sure if that proves his dedication to being a healer, a lack of dedication to running a mercenary company, or simply a lack of desire to speak with me.
When he arrived and introduced himself he brought a Fox woman in middle class clothing with him. From my understanding, all beastfolk in Ferin were slaves, so it was strange that he had brought her along. Perhaps she was his assistant? “Greetings, Viscount Starshine.” I said, then introduced myself. “I am Sir Lawrence Faststaff, and this is my apprentice, the eldest son of Duke Goldport of Celine, Peter Goldport.”
He bowed. “Sir Faststaff, Count Goldport. What can I help you with.” At first I was confused with his addressing Peter with a noble title, then I realized what the issue was. “Oh, he isn’t technically a Count, as noble titles work a bit differently here than in Celine, but we both represent his father. The Duke has asked us to recruit mercenary units from the northern nations to help retake the territory he has lost. I have come to ask that your forces join us.”
“Understandable.” he said, then motioned towards a back office. “Come, let us discuss it in private.” We followed him to an office where he motioned to one side of a conference table. Strangely, both he and his slave sat on the other side. Quite unusual to allow a slave to sit with you. After a goblin woman brought us drinks, including bringing the slave tea, he spoke. “I believe the first thing to settle is that my unit is quite small. I have only twenty full time troops here, in order to train others. There are another eighty or so that we hire for temporary assignments whenever we need to attack a bandit or monster lair, but one hundred troops isn’t enough to fight a war.”
“I understand that you specialize in training warriors, which is why I have a proposal. We would be willing to pay for the training and recruitment cost of up to two thousand troops, as well as the cost of food and wagons to get them to Fort Garlow, our staging ground in Celine. We would then give you the right of salvage and capture of any enemies you may face.”
The Viscount seemed to think for a few seconds. “And what if that doesn’t earn us a profit, or even cover our operating costs, like wages and food? Should I remove my troops from your territory, or will you cover my costs? And what about the non-combatants, like healers, smiths, and cooks?” I noticed the slave taking notes. That meant she was well educated.
It seemed that he had found the problem with such a method of payment. The gear salvaged from soldiers would quickly flood the market and its price would drop, as would the price for demon and devil slaves, especially considering that they could only be kept indentured until the war ended, and no one knew when that would be. That meant that buying an indentured POW’s contract was highly speculative. “We lack the liquid funds to provide you with monetary compensation, due to the large number of mercenaries we must hire and the necessity of abandoning our main vault when we were forced from the city, but once we retake the city we can pay you double your expenses.”
He nodded. “War is quite unpredictable. We can not be sure when or even if we will retake Goldport, nor do we know its condition when it is retaken. The Demons may very well sack the city before letting us retake it, capturing all of the citizens as slaves and absconding with anything of value. And I doubt you can guarantee that your king or anyone else will guarantee the Duke’s loans. So, I have an alternative method of payment in mind. Put up your land as collateral.”
The Fox woman looked impressed, but the Duke’s son and I were surprised by the idea. While it wasn’t unheard of for a noble to hold land in multiple countries this usually occurred as a result of their territory being split during a war. Furthermore, Celine and Ferin were over a thousand kilometers apart, with Ferin being on the border with the Southern nations and Celine being one of the Northernmost countries. I could understand a second or third child of a noble looking for land in another country, as they were unlikely to inherit, but as the firstborn child, and son of the Count he would no doubt inherit this city and county. Asking for land made no sense. “My Lord, I don’t know if that is possible. Your territory would be split across a vast distance, so it would be difficult for you to split your attention between them. You would be forced to allow a subordinate to administer the territory in your stead for most of the year.”
“You misunderstand. I am not asking to swear fealty to multiple kings. I am asking for the land to become collateral which I can sell to another noble if you fail to pay me back within, say, ten years? My father is quite healthy. If the war goes quickly, I will recover my costs long before he dies and I must inherit.”
I nodded and thought for a minute. “That is possible, however, only a single county within the Duke’s domain has yet to be captured, as it holds our strongest castle town and over ten thousand troops, Fort Garlow. Such a payment could only be made in land that you capture from the enemy.”
“That is acceptable.” he said, then nodded and stood. “I’ll have Persy write up the contract and you can come back tomorrow to sign it.” He reached out his hand towards me. At first I didn’t recognize what he was doing, then I realized that it was a sign of goodwill adopted from the Southern Nations called a Handshake. I grabbed his hand and felt a detection threat enter my hand. I quickly hit it with one of my own and he smiled. “So, if it isn’t too personal, I have a question. Why is a devil fighting against the Demon Emperor?”
The Fox, who I assume is named Persy, looked surprised at the revelation, but Lord Peter looked more surprised that he had figured it out. Determining someone’s race that quickly required quite a bit of skill with detection threads, after all. “I know nothing of the Emperor or his nation. I grew up in Goldport and swore loyalty to the Duke. They are not my people, nor will they ever be unless they decide to remain behind as the Duke’s subject once we reclaim the land. I am surprised that you determined that so quickly.”
“I am a healer. I always check for the race of the person I am treating, at least since I met a vampire who needed my help. Some treatments must change depending on race and bloodlines. I suspect that Persy could have done it faster than me, though.”
The Fox woman nodded. “More skillfully, if not more quickly. You likely wouldn’t have detected my thread until my tests got a bit invasive.” I gave her a quizzical look. “I am in charge of the animal and slave section of the clinic. As such I have dealt with a far larger variety of species than Master Cam. And due to the lower quality pain medicines I use in that section, I have learned to be much gentler with my patients.”
I nodded, then Lord Peter spoke up. “Do you also work for the mercenary group?” he asked, pointing at the Oak Tree necklace she wore.
“The mercenaries actually have access to free standard treatment at the master’s clinic, but sometime I am on standby during sparing sessions if the healer trainees lack enough skill to be useful. But this is actually a symbol of my god. I am a priestess of the Lord of the Forest.”
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“A real Priestess?” Peter asked and she nodded. “Then we would love it if you accompanied your master to the battlefield. There have been reports that several Demon priests are among the demon troops, and if their gods are lending their aid, we will need the aid of our gods.” I looked at him with a stern look on my face and he realized that he probably shouldn’t have said that. “That is, of course, not yet public knowledge, so I would appreciate if you don’t tell anyone else yet.”
Viscount Starshine nodded. “Understood. You are my employer now, so I wouldn’t think about revealing your professional secrets.” That was good. Even if putting such a clause in a contract with a fellow noble would cause us to lose face with other nobles, he understood the situation and would obey. And he didn’t even ask for more pay in exchange. The land we put up as collateral must be more valuable to him than we thought.
The next day we were presented with a contract. We would pay for the training, recruitment, basic equipping, and travel of up to two thousand troops, and after officially joining the war he would be given salvage rights for all enemy troops he fought, and enemy troops he defeated. Should he fail to double his costs in seized value, he would also be allowed to hold onto any territory he personally seized as well as a portion of any land he helped seize, based on troop contribution, and hold it as collateral for up to ten years after the end of the war against the debt. At the end of that ten years, either we would have to pay for the land or he would be allowed to sell it to any lord of Celine for up to the total amount of the debt. The only way he could keep the land for more than fifteen years after the war ended was to swear fealty to one of the other lords of Celine, with a minimum rank of Count, as he is currently a Viscount.
Peter, Lord Cameron and myself signed the contract, and the magical energy held within it flowed into us, binding us by its terms. There were several loopholes on both sides, but it was acceptable.
After that, I handed Lord Starshine a bag containing one thousand gold. Anyone could train and hire a soldier for ten silver, but the travel costs may be more than that. He thanked us and we left. We would be waiting in town until morning, then setting out for the next mercenary company.
Cameron’s perspective:
Well, it looked like I was officially part of the war, now. I had told my father about the recruitment last night, and he had approved of my decision. He knew this was a possibility when I created the company, but didn’t think it would happen this soon. Celine must be desperate.
Mother just started crying, saying that she didn’t want her son to go off to war. I reminded her that I wouldn’t be leaving for at least a month, and she nodded. That seemed to relieve her worries a bit. The next set of certifications would be happening in five days, and I was participating to get my Artificer certification. It had been a tough decision to learn that, as I still had bad memories of tracing electrical circuits in my last life, but it seemed to fit me better than Enchanting. Not that I wasn’t also an Enchanter, I just hadn’t gotten my certification yet. Much like how I knew most of the spells in the Advanced Combat Mage manual, but had yet gone to take the test. I might have to pay for a special session next month so that I can get all three certifications before I leave.
For now, though, I would talk to the recruiter here. They would have over nine hundred people taking their certification exams in five days, and if we could recruit them we would only have to train another one thousand one hundred troops.
After I talked to them, and they promised to try and recruit anyone that they could, I set out to my other business. After all, while Duke Goldport would be covering the travel costs, I would need to get them there on my own, then be reimbursed once I arrived at the fort. Their sales had topped two hundred gold in profit last month, and they were on track to earn over three hundred in profit this month. That would certainly help. I would need to travel to Manasource to check on my profits there, though I was sure they wouldn’t be as large as those here. There was another possibility, though. I could ask Duke Manasource for permission to start a mercenary office in his city as well. It would be unlikely that I could train a group of mercenaries next month, but the month after that shouldn’t be a problem.
I could also recruit out of work mercenaries and former bandits from there. With the peace treaty being signed, most of them were probably out of work, and with most monster populations being wiped out during the food shortage they wouldn’t even be able to find work as an adventurer. If I got permission, I would offer the same thing my people offered the recruits from here, five silver if you provide your own weapon and armor, or a set of chest armor and a basic weapon if not. A standard monster leather chest piece cost five silver new and an arming sword, mace, spear, mages staff or bow cost two silvers. And if there was a shortage of monster leather, a chainmail shirt cost six silver as it took an apprentice three days to make each one.
Two days later, during her weekly sermon, Persy told the people of the slums that she was leaving for the North to help stop the Demon invasion. When they asked if they could come with her, she notified them that, while they would need workers while in the field, the Great Oak Mercenary Company would be starting the training of a new group of trainees on the first, and that they would be willing to recruit anyone that passed their certification, including equipping them and giving them the training for free. Word got around and when the first day of the month got here the mercenary group had over two thousand people try to sign up for the training, seventy percent of them being from the slums.
As Samantha’s caravan was setting off on the second, I decided to ride with them to Manasource. I had told her about my mercenary group heading north and she soon decided that she would send several wagons with me, loaded with medicines and other supplies that were in demand by the armies. It would take us almost two weeks to get to the fort, four weeks if we couldn’t find enough wagons and horses to carry all of the men and supplies and were forced to march the distance. She, however, saw that here caravan could more than triple its investment with each trip, and that there would be a massive army traveling with her wagons, thus insuring that her people would be perfectly safe. She also wanted to go with us on the first trip, so that she could see firsthand what the situation was like up there and what could be traded both ways. I suspected that the demons and their equipment would be the most common thing sent back. I arranged for her to find us the horses, wagons, and supplies we needed to move and provide for at least two thousand five hundred people in exchange for protecting her caravan.
Before we left I had an idea for a way to help morale. First, I went to the storehouse in the palace and purchased mithril and Star Mithril. While the normal Mithril went for only one gold for a half kilogram ingot, the Star Mitril was sold by the wire, and came out to over ten gold for a half kilogram of wire. I bought an ingot of mithril and five gold work of Star Mithril wire, then had an idea. “I have a question. I know that Star Mithril requires almost pure mithril.” The vendor looked uneasy, but confirmed that statement. That was the only thing that was known publicly about the production process, as the palace produced enhanced Orichalcum ingots, manacite that had most of the mithril extracted.
“If you want to learn the production process, you’ll have to discuss it with your father.” he responded.
“Oh, I know that. What I was wondering, though, is if I could buy enhanced Orichalcum here as well.” I held up the Worm Core that was hanging around my neck. “This thing has been useful, but if I’m going to war I really should increase my mana pressure.”
“Oh, yes. I can sell it to you. What pressure are you looking for?” If I concentrated I could feel mana radiating out of the storeroom, but they likely held the ingots in some sort of magical device that used most of the mana, making it bearable for normal people. “We have up to pressure ten here, but I can get you up to fifteen if you are willing to come back tomorrow. There are just special procedures I need to go through to get it.” Fifteen pressure was as high as you can safely go. At sixteen chemical bonds start breaking down from the pressure and only pure materials can be near it. In fact, only one piece of pure orichalcum existed in the world, in a museum. It has a pressure of seventeen point eight and is held within a magical forcefield which it powers by itself, and anything which enters the containment circle must be pure materials, like iron or mithril. Moving it requires a two meter long pair of tongs. High purity Orichalcum was only really useful for powering magical devices that needed a lot of power.
“I don’t really know. I was hoping to get amulets made of the material, but I don’t know who in town can do that.” I told him about the woman who made my Star Mithril Ring, and said that I was considering asking her to do it.
“She is capable, but if you want any engraving done you’ll want to take it to an artificer.” He gave me a list of five in the city that regularly bought Orichalcum or mithril here.
As it was as expensive as the Star Mithril, I ended up buying only half an ingot. I needed to save as much money as possible.
Now eleven gold poorer I went to the jeweler. I gave her the mithril and Star Mithril and told her what I wanted, and she assured me that they would be done by the end of the month. I paid her her five gold in advance, then went to the artificer. I was actually a beginner artificer, so I had some idea of how to do what I wanted, but I knew I didn’t have the skill to do it myself. There I ordered that two amulets be made with the enhanced orichalcum, one for me and one for Samantha, then paid the five gold it would cost to make them and left with the same assurance the jeweler had given me. I was certain that if I hadn’t brought them the materials I would have paid far more in total.
Another ten gold poorer, I locked the rest of the gold in my safe and went home. I wanted to be well rested for tomorrow, as we would be setting out at dawn.