There were plenty of weird looks when I brought Mr Cedar into the bar. No one asked however and business continued as usual. It was only after I gave the registration form to him that Mr Hildegard made a sound from across the room.

“So, the wee one has gotten themself a friend. I suppose you won’t be talking either… mister?”

“No, no quite the opposite actually. Though I have no complaints about I really since I volunteered for it. I am talking about being a noisy little mouth of course, but that is hardly relevant. The name that you may call me is blabber mouth and I hope the reason behind the name is apparent. I also hope that I am not the only one that thought this amusing, but anyway it is nice to make your acquaintance. You are?”

“Neat, so we have a yapper.”

“Indeed, yapper would be one way to refer to me. I hope to be a little less annoying, but that shall only commence once I stop finding this funny.”

Mr Hildegard looked at me ignoring Mr Cedar

“Oi wee one, how on earth did this combo ever come to be.”

I just shrugged my shoulders. It was the truth; I had no Idea.

After Mr Hildegard had enough of Mr Cedar, he filled out the form. A mercenary registration really shouldn’t be a valid for of identification, but it was. The only personal info that the form recorded were skills and the chosen name as well as the town of registration.

It was entirely up to the guild leader of each branch to accept each form. I had never heard of a guild leader accepting a bad egg, but I also hadn’t seen much of the world.

When Mr Cedar presented the form to Mr Hildegard, he made a comment before signing it as quick as possible.

“Hah, Blabbermouth, no kidding.”

It seemed that Mr Hildegard knew that giving the blabbermouth questions would only bring pain. The process was smooth, probably easier since MR Hildegard already knew me.

Once the form was stamped and put on the wall Blabbermouth lit up and Mr Hildegard let out his frustration.

“I have a query”

“Fuck.”

“I would like to enter a Binding with fellow mercenary Shh.”

“Oh, that’s simple, you can’t.”

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

Mr Hildegard seemed to be relieved that Blabbermouth was talking normally not just that the question was simple.

“No, no I do believe I can. If Shh is the leader of the binding, then it is possible. Even if you still say non then I would like to remind you that Shh counts as an experienced mercenary. They might not have much experience, but it is enough to qualify for being a mentor.”

“Hmm, Shh didn’t strike me as the leader type.”

“Well, the boss dragged me out of sweet retirement so do with that information what you will.”

“Alright, alright, Shh you okay with this?”

I nodded my head and Mr Hildegard went to the backroom to get a piece of parchment. It was a thin strip only slightly longer than a business ticket and the same width as the registration forms. Mr Hildegard wrote the terms of the binding on the back and then signed the front.

The man then got up and handed me the piece of parchment.

“Read it. If you agree to the terms, then put your and the yapper’s registration forms under the same pin. Make sure that you put that piece at the top, if you can’t see it, it isn’t valid.”

The terms were mainly about trust and integrity along with some fluff. Things like spoils were to be decided by each binding themselves. if the guild interfered with profits, they would surely face backlash.

There wasn’t anything that I strongly disagreed with, so I walked over to the board. I took out my registration form and put it on top of blabbermouth’s along with the parchment. When I looked back at Mr Hildegard he was gobsmacked.

“The wee one has grown!”

At his loud voice the tavern lit up with cheers. I was sure that they didn’t know why they were cheering, but that didn’t make it any less embarrassing.

It was at least a little surprising since it had only been a little less than two months since I started. I attributed my growth to the fact I was eating more. Although embarrassed I was not deterred, in fact I wished to be even taller.

I looked to Mr Cedar, and he just shrugged back at me.

To punish the old man, I walked over to another board. I had always taken the jobs that Mr Hildegard or miss lucy had given, but there was a commission board. I scoured it for a minute before taking a request for the extermination off a Dimitri class Jagged Bear.

The request was worth one gold. In truth it was a rip off as I had learnt that the mana stone alone was worth a single gold, but the guild could get away with such quests as they were “introductory”. You couldn’t sell materials from animals with a classification until you had been “introduced” into that class.

The thought of gold brought up a thought in my mind. We didn’t have to go through a broker to get a shop on the main street, we could go through mother. We could surely scam here to sell us the land itself if presented enough gold, and unlike higher titles barons couldn’t get back sold land.

The thought of scamming mother, although sweet, was impractical. Instead, a much better idea came up, I just had to find a broker that was on my side.

There were hundreds of villages in the territory, there would surely be at least someone. I was very glad that father had not been a knight stuck in a single village collecting pocket change.

The money an average knight had for spending was recorded t be 384 gold. A NORMAL barony was magnitudes greater than that. Most knights preferred to enter the service of another noble to secure better income. The barony had one of such knights, Mark, the old head guard.

Once Mr Hildegard had calmed down from his amusement, he had little complaint of me picking the commission. He even cracked a few jokes about making it big.

Mr Hildegard might have been jolly, but I was not, and I dragged Blabbermouth with me.