episode_0029

‘Ha… How could there be a hole in the waterproof cloth I covered it with?’

Mina’s return with Eugene’s Greatsword Armor was somewhat delayed.

The waterproof cloth covering Eugene’s armor had a hole in it, causing it to become completely soaked by the water sprayed to cool the blacksmith’s shop.

As a result, she had to spend about 10 minutes removing the moisture from every nook and cranny of the armor.

Afterwards, Mina hurriedly carried the armor and returned to her office inside the workshop,

“Giggle! I’m flying in the sky, Sister Charlotte!”

“That’s awesome! Please do it for me too, Eugene hyung!”

The children’s bright laughter could be heard.

It was clearly laughter echoing with Eugene.

“Heave-ho! How is it, Jonathan? But you’re too light, aren’t you? How can you be a mercenary if you’re this light? You’ll get dragged by your sword and fall over.”

“Wow~! I’m really flying!”

“Yeah, don’t be a mercenary, but learn blacksmithing from Mina unnie with Michael oppa, Jonathan. Why does a kid who’s so scared keep wanting to do that?”

Soon, what greeted Mina as she entered the inside where the laughter was coming from was

Margaret and Jonathan riding on Eugene’s shoulders.

And in front of them, Michael and Charlotte looked up at the two of them.

“Oh, did you arrive, Mina-ssi? Did you have some finishing work to do?”

“Yes… Some water got in, so I was wiping it off…”

“Mina unnie! I’m flying! Look at me! Hehe!”

Eugene, who found Mina carrying the armor,

greeted her while still having the children on his shoulders.

Margaret, sitting on Eugene’s broad right shoulder,

waved her hands with a delighted expression and boasted to her beloved Mina unnie.

“Let’s see each other again next time, kids. Margaret, be sure to keep your promise to make a flower crown for uncle, okay?”

“Okay, uncle! Hehe!”

The children moved back to the office on the opposite side.

Eugene made eye contact with each of them and said goodbye, promising to meet again next time.

“….”

The blacksmith Mina from the underground city watched the scene silently from behind Eugene,

but with a somewhat subtle expression.

“You’re really kind to the children…”

After the children left,

Eugene began to try on the Greatsword Armor made to his specifications.

At that moment, Mina, standing next to Eugene and helping him put on his armor,

expressed her gratitude to Eugene once again in a low voice.

Mina was somewhat concerned about separating Eugene and the children.

This is because she wants the children to play to their heart’s content without feeling intimidated, at least when they are with her.

In other words, if guests are here, keeping the children in the office may make them think that they are bothering her.

However, Eugene, the guest, filled that gap by playing with the children.

“Is that so? Hmm… Those kids are so sociable and pretty. So, I enjoy being with them even more.”

Eugene reacted coolly to Mina’s words.

After his early twenties in his previous life, after he came to his senses to some extent,

he actually went back to the orphanage where he grew up and often played with the children.

How could that vibe change even after 20 years?

Glance…! Glance…!

However, contrary to the overall composure,

Eugene’s eye movements were quite busy.

He was busy glancing at Mina, who was helping him put on the armor from behind, through the full-length mirror in front of him.

‘That’s right. As Charlotte and Margaret said, Mina-ssi did makeup on her eyes and cheeks.’

It was to check Mina’s makeup status.

Margaret suddenly came toddling up and asked if Eugene was Mina’s boyfriend,

Eugene quickly composed himself after a moment of blankness and carefully asked why she thought so.

Then, the content that Margaret hesitantly conveyed was none other than

that she had heard from her siblings that Mina had put on makeup.

In other words, Charlotte, who is now old enough to be interested in dressing up, first discovered Mina’s makeup status and shared it with Michael and Jonathan.

After Eugene appeared at the blacksmith’s shop,

the three little ones speculated that Eugene was Mina’s boyfriend and that she had put on makeup because she wanted to look good to him.

Margaret had been watching the chatter from the side with a blank expression, so

this innocent little one immediately approached Eugene without a moment’s hesitation and asked if it was true.

‘If Mina-ssi really put on makeup because she’s conscious of me, as the children think,’

After checking Mina’s makeup status, Eugene’s mind began to spin at the speed of light.

He is trying to figure out Mina’s intention behind the makeup.

So, to get closer to the children and to understand the unintentionally acquired information more deeply,

Eugene had Margaret call the other children and played with them diligently.

In the middle of playing with them, he threw out probing questions about Mina.

As a result, he heard that Mina is not the type to put on makeup when she is relaxing or meeting someone.

Based on that, even Eugene, who is not a very knowledgeable type in women’s psychology,

could feel that the barbarian blacksmith Mina was quite conscious of today’s meeting with him.

‘That day, I showed Mina-ssi such a crude appearance, but unexpectedly, it didn’t leave a very bad impression, did it?’

What kind of person is Eugene Schneider?

On the first day he met Mina,

he was a man who openly pitched a tent on her face.

The size had to be moderate to be just startled and end there, but

as Jeanne directly confirmed, he is a man with a 26cm long and log-thick thing.

So, it is natural for the other party to fall backwards when faced with that monstrosity.

Despite being so startled and embarrassed,

Mina only widened her eyes for a moment and

bought time for Eugene’s erection to subside by talking to him appropriately and smoothed things over.

Eugene, who experienced the process, thought that Mina’s personality was so innocent that she handled it that way, but

he still thought that there would inevitably be unpleasant feelings left in his heart.

However, if you look at the fact that she consciously put on makeup on the day she met him,

the mindset of Mina, whose gap from his existing thoughts is quite large, is inferred as Eugene, the erection man of that day.

‘Eugene-ssi is so considerate and kind… I’ve never seen a man like this before… The only similar person was my teacher, although he was gruff and eccentric…?’

However, Mina’s feelings were more than that.

A woman from the vulgar underground city with a voluptuous body,

and a blacksmith, a profession that is considered her calling.

Therefore, sexual harassment is inevitable in Mina’s life.

However, not only is she used to it, but also because this fantasy world is basically a macho culture,

Mina just lives with it.

To her, Eugene’s appearance in their first meeting a few days ago was a fresh shock.

‘I really couldn’t believe that a man could make such an expression while looking at me…’

Since the blacksmith’s shop is extremely hot and humid,

Mina is forced to wear revealing work clothes.

Mercenaries who were erect at the sight of Mina usually enjoyed Mina’s embarrassed reaction with blatant perverted smiles.

But Eugene was different.

He clearly had an unavoidable erection, but he first apologized to Mina.

In addition, he sent a thank-you eye greeting to Mina, who had smoothly smoothed over the situation.

The kind attitude of a man she had never received, born into a vulgar status,

Since she became an adult, she had only been treated as a sexual piece of meat, but

Eugene, the man in front of her now, treated her as a person.

‘This kind of man… Is it okay for someone like me to like him…?’

As a result, Mina’s heart was filled with admiration for Eugene Schneider like a love-at-first-sight.

**********

“Is this really the request that came to us? It seems too big for me.”

That evening,

Another woman, disturbed by Eugene Schneider, had a thoughtful expression on her face.

It is Jeanne d’Arc de Selle Oubliant, the second daughter of the Red Hair Duchal family.

She is seriously looking at a scroll that is presumed to be a situation report.

It seems to be a scroll related to the new quest she told Eugene about.

“Even I, after investigating separately, felt that it was too far from the standard, so I became suspicious like Captain. So, I thought I should make sure and looked for additional information,”

Unlike other ordinary mercenary groups, Jeanne’s mercenary group thoroughly conducts preliminary investigations when receiving quests,

Therefore, after acquiring the quest, Thomas sent a message to Jeanne and then moved to conduct on-site preliminary investigations in the quest area.

So, he investigated from yesterday afternoon to this morning and

arrived at the lodging where Marie was staying around early evening and is reporting to the captain, Jeanne.

After conducting such a thorough preliminary investigation,

the overall size of the quest is too large for the Red Fox Mercenary Group, which has about 30 people including porters, to cover.

“The Black Stone scale mercenary group already has a quest in progress, so it is difficult to mobilize them for the quest we received.”

It seemed appropriate to commission the Black Stone scale mercenary group for stability because of the ambiguous size, or to commission two White Stone scale mercenary groups.

However, the Mercenary Association stated that the supply situation of the Black Stone scale mercenary group was not smooth and

made a sole offer to the White Stone scale Red Hair Mercenary Group.

“Hmm, it looks like the association is being bribed by the Black Stone scale mercenary group and looking out for their situation?”

Then, the secular nun Sophia, who has been a mercenary the longest after the Shield Rabbit soldier Ivan,

exposed the corruption of the Mercenary Association.

The Mercenary Association collects quests with request fees set by public institutions, public officials,

and private individuals.

After that, when the mercenary group assigned to the quest performs the mission,

the request fee is divided between the mercenary group and the association at a certain ratio.

In general, there is no major problem with the Mercenary Association’s administration being carried out with only the association capital secured in that way.

However, as expected, the Mercenary Association is not satisfied with that,

so they are desperate to increase the association’s capital.

“It’s a quest that’s only big in size and doesn’t have any loopholes to pocket money.”

In the case of general mercenary groups that have grown to the Black Stone level,

it is tight to maintain the organization’s size with only the quest fees.

Furthermore, it is virtually impossible to grow the power beyond maintenance.

So, from that point on, medium-sized mercenary groups start looking for sponsors.

Usually, wealthy merchants and nobles with abundant territory but insufficient troops to protect it are their sponsor targets.

Therefore, the Black Stone scale mercenary groups are lobbying the Mercenary Association on a regular basis to only do quests that can be involved with them.

Then, the association agrees to share a certain portion of the sponsorship money when connected with the sponsor under their efforts and provides the relevant mercenary groups with only lucrative quests.

Under such a quest distribution structure, the quest assigned to the Red Fox Mercenary Group this time was neither a quest with merchants nor a quest involving nobles.

It was just a quest requested by ordinary farmers far from any crumbs.

The difficulty level is not easy either.

In other words, it can be seen that the Mercenary Association has entrusted the Red Fox Mercenary Group with the unpopular quest processing team.

“Hehe! Geez… Originally, the mercenaries in the Elysium Empire were created to inherit the form created for the self-defense corps in the Warring States period, but it’s really bitter. If it’s this much quest request fee, it’s clear that the residents here squeezed all the money they had as a last resort.”

Ivan next to Sophia crossed his arms and sighed with a mixture of regret.

Ivan became a mercenary because he wanted to protect the village where he lived from monsters and thieves.

But in the end, he couldn’t protect it.

Still, Ivan Igor, an indomitable man who wanted to prevent anyone else from experiencing the same thing as himself,

He continued to silently walk the path of a mercenary.

Thanks to his best efforts and talent, Ivan even joined a Bronze scale mercenary group.

But at some point, he felt that the place he was working for was moving away from the path of a mercenary that Ivan himself was pursuing.

The inevitable flow of the mercenary system, where the market continues to grow,

Feeling disillusioned with it, Ivan eventually left the Bronze scale mercenary group and

has been wielding his axe as a wandering mercenary for several years since then.

“In a chaotic world, people wield swords for their own purposes, so I don’t think we should say anything if they focus on their own interests.”

Jeanne, who had been listening to her colleagues’ conversation silently, seemed to have made a final decision.

She continued her words as the captain without wavering in a low voice.

“It’s the same for us. We just need to live the mercenary life we want. In that sense, I think this quest clearly aligns with the path of the Red Fox Mercenary Group.”

Jeanne decided that the quest, which everyone avoided because the additional crumbs were not large compared to the difficulty of the quest,

as the new quest to be performed by her mercenary group, the Red Fox Mercenary Group.

**********

“Maid leader, only my underwear is missing?”

Eugene, who collected the Greatsword Armor, returned to the main house.

While organizing the armor, he belatedly remembered the condoms he had received from Sophia.

So, Eugene Schneider, who moved to the laundry room to dispose of them, began to rummage through his laundry,

However, the fact that his underwear was missing was more noticeable than finding the condoms.

As a result, Eugene is asking his aunt, the maid leader, about the whereabouts of his underwear.

“I threw away your brother’s underwear separately. It was badly damaged.”

Click, click, click…

At that moment, the voice of Elisabeth, the youngest lady of the Oubliant family, and her gentle footsteps were heard behind Eugene.

Swish!

“Really? It was damaged?”

Then, Eugene turned his head to the side where Elisabeth was approaching and

reacted with a questioning expression.

‘Was I too out of it at the time to notice?’

This is because he thought that his underwear was not particularly damaged except for being soaked in sweat in his memory.

“Yes, brother. So, I carefully handled it with great care and disposed of it.”

Smile…!

Looking at such Eugene, Elisabeth answered with a subtle smile on her beautiful lips.