episode_0097

“Hmm, there is no such thing as a very cute cat. You asked me if I was lewd or anything, but you actually said you were the lewdest, right?”

“ik… … !”

Gienna trembled as Amy looked at her with a big smile. It seemed like he wanted to refute something, but couldn’t seem to think of anything to refute.

“I am not lewd!”

“So, you didn’t?”

“That, that, that… … !”

“Look at this. It’s not lewd. How do you eat it all in one day?”

“Now, job… … ?!”

Gienna looked like she was about to explode at Amy’s playful attitude. Perhaps because he expected that no matter what he said, it would come back as teasing, he simply pursed his lips and couldn’t answer.

“Ah, I’m so sorry! I was targeting Andrew too. I never thought I’d be taken away like this in just one night.”

However, Amy, who was teasing Jienna, said something shocking. The story was that they were targeting me.

I looked at her wondering what on earth that meant, and Amy shrugged her shoulders.

“I’m just saying this now, but you were popular with girls when you were young. I was one of them.”

“… … Huh?”

” Strangely, unlike other boys, he felt like an older brother and was more mature. When boys walk around lifting their skirts, you smile and say hello. It was very popular with kids.”

“Why didn’t I know that?”

“It’s because of you. Why, when Prine confessed before that he liked you. You said you had no intention of hanging out with young kids. You must be at least twenty years old. After the rumor spread, most people gave up their minds. No matter how much I like you, it’s hard to wait for nearly ten years.”

There was one memory that came to mind after hearing Amy’s words. It was a memory of one of the girls I grew up with confessing to me that she liked me. At that time, perhaps because of memories of my past life, I felt leery about interacting with children. No, regardless of my past life, it would be more accurate to say that I had no inspiration because I was a child.

“… … wait for a sec. At what point did it become rumored that I liked adults?”

“That’s right.”

At Amy’s affirmative answer, I washed my face dry without realizing it. When I was young, there was a brief but strange rumor, and there was a time when some of my older brothers were very wary of me. I was astonished to hear that it was all because of this.

“Ugh… … ! If I had known this would happen, I would have caught it yesterday!”

Amy, who exploded a bomb that wasn’t a bomb, sank down on the table with a very sad look on her face. Thanks to this, the dishes were pushed out little by little, but I couldn’t pay attention to that.

“Uh, um… … . It’s a joke, right?”

“Do you think it’s a joke?”

I couldn’t say anything more as I saw Amy’s glaring look. As I was looking at Ziena and I with sincere regret, I couldn’t really think of what to say. It was probably the same for Jiena, as her face was still red and her mouth was tightly shut.

But fortunately, Amy quickly stood up with a cheerful expression on her face.

“Well, since we can’t do anything about things that have already passed, we should talk about work first, right? That’s why I came here in the first place.”

“Ah, yes. Then.”

Since it was the end of a story that was difficult to put into words, I nodded willingly. And then, I went straight into the living room with Amy.

“First of all, what you want is for me to hire your mercenary group and settle down in our village, right?”

“Yes. To be honest, it’s fun to just wander around, but I don’t think it’s a bad idea to settle down in one place. It would be better if it were my hometown. Isn’t there a mercenary group you’ve already hired?”

“Not yet. Because it hasn’t been long since I became a lord.”

It hadn’t been long since he became a lord, and he didn’t have much knowledge about what a lord had to do. So to be honest, hiring a mercenary group was something I had never even thought about.

“Thank goodness. I also have a chance.”

“Opportunity? Is it difficult to settle down in the territory?”

“There are territories that randomly hire mercenaries, so it’s not that difficult, but it’s very difficult to get into a good territory. As a mercenary, it may be a little hard for me to say this, but mercenaries have a bit of a shitty personality, right? From the lords’ perspective, they don’t want the number of mercenaries to increase beyond a certain level.”

Since mercenaries brought in from outside often cause accidents in the village, I fully understood what Amy said. From the lord’s point of view, he would filter out those who are likely to cause trouble and try to hire normal and skilled mercenaries.

“Oh, don’t misunderstand that. It’s not because we’re mercenaries who commit mischief that we couldn’t be hired. That’s because it’s a new mercenary group and its name is not yet known. We have a lot of people and our skills are good! This is something I take pride in. I’m not exaggerating because it’s my mercenary group.”

“Really? What is the name of the mercenary group?”

“Hooded Mercenaries!”

“… … Hmm?”

I felt strangely familiar as Amy shouted the name of the mercenary group with pride. It felt like I heard it somewhere. Because of that, I looked back on my memory for a moment and was able to remember where I heard it.

“This is the mercenary group that captured the special entity last time?”

That was the name of the mercenary group that solved the request I had placed in the mercenary hall. It was the mercenary group that captured the goblin shaman and goblin warrior.

“… … Special object? Uh, wait a minute. I did one request around here to catch a special object, right? What, was that request yours?”

“Were you really a mercenary group? No, a man came at that time.”

“Ah, our vice-captain. He’s an experienced veteran mercenary. He’s a guy who does a lot of things for me. The youngest member of our mercenary group brought a request from somewhere and the compensation was quite generous. So I did it right away… … . I didn’t know it was yours.”

When I looked back at Amy’s words, I remembered that I only thought of him as the leader of a mercenary group, but that he did not call himself leader or leader.

“But why are you a bandana mercenary group? Last time, all those people were wearing hoods. Are you wearing one too?”

” Originally, I started writing it first, but the members followed suit and that’s how it ended up. Because of my hair, my vision was often blocked when I moved roughly. Because it’s short hair, it doesn’t get tied up easily… … .”

Amy swept her light brown hair slightly above her shoulders. The flowing hair looked quite soft, and if it moved vigorously as Amy said, it would be perfect for blocking the view.

Anyway, after learning a bit about Amy’s mercenary group, I nodded lightly. If you can hunt a group of goblins containing special individuals without damaging their bodies, your skills have been proven.

“The skill itself seemed good, so I guess we can skip that part. At that time, it was quite impressive.”

“Right? We also worked hard to make our name known. Something that big is perfect for getting your name out there.”

When Amy heard that my mercenary group was good, she smiled softly as if she was happy.

“It would be nice if I could find a mercenary group with good skills… … . Then we should talk about the conditions, right? If there are any conditions you want, please tell me first.”

“Keuung… … .”

When asked to state the conditions she wanted, Amy groaned slightly. But it wasn’t something I couldn’t understand. One way or another, I was the one in power here.

Still, maybe it was because it was about her mercenary group, but after thinking for a while, Amy began to put forward conditions one by one.

“First of all, I want to manage the mercenary hall as part of our mercenary group. If there are good mercenaries, it’s easy to scout them into our mercenary group, and it’s easy to control other mercenaries from a hired position.”

“That’s okay. I have to manage the mercenary hall anyway. Until now, it was roughly just a lounge for mercenaries and a bulletin board display… … . If anything, it would be better for me to take care of it. It wouldn’t be a bad idea to operate it in the form of a mercenary guild.”

The mercenary hall was where the residents of the territory or the merchants visiting the territory could conveniently hire mercenaries. There was nothing wrong with me if they said I would personally manage such a place.

Amy must have thought that this would be passed without difficulty, so she continued to talk about what she wanted.

Conditions included free lease of land to build a building that could be used exclusively by Amy’s Hood mercenaries and support for mercenaries to settle in the territory.

Of course, even Amy couldn’t meet all those conditions.

“I don’t know anything else, but there is no tax reduction. Because once you give preferential treatment, it sets a precedent.”

In particular, the condition of requesting a partial tax reduction for the mercenaries who would settle in the territory could never be accepted. If you manage a hall and control requests, it is common to receive a request fee. In such a situation, reducing taxes for mercenaries was not a particularly good thing.

“… … Really no?”

“Uh. never. Instead, we’ll give you a small discount on the cost of using our blacksmith shop. If you’re a mercenary, aren’t you going to keep buying things from the blacksmith shop anyway?”

“Uh… … . Is it good?”

Amy puffed her cheeks and pursed her lips as if thinking for a moment, then nodded. Since mercenaries tend to use a lot of iron products, they thought it would be a good idea to give them a discount.

Of course, I didn’t intend to just give it away. They would give me a discount just enough to have enough to spare, and only those purchases for personal use would be discounted. I had no intention of allowing people to gain unfair advantage by taking advantage of something that could be purchased cheaply.

Anyway, after briefly adjusting Amy’s conditions, I presented the conditions this time.

“If a territory war breaks out, all mercenaries in your mercenary group will be drafted.”

“That’s natural. If a territory war breaks out, we will prepare first. Because this is my hometown too.”

“Next, mercenaries are also in a situation similar to settling in a territory, so they have to pay taxes periodically and follow the laws of the territory.”

“Yes. I will. It’s not like our mercenary group is evil anyway.”

Amy continued to nod, probably because she thought the conditions I was asking for were reasonable and not unreasonable. As I was going through a few more conditions, one thing came to mind.

“In addition, we will give quotas to requests. You must unconditionally carry out the requests I give you at least a few times during a certain period of time.”

“Umm… … . must? By any chance, aren’t you asking me to do something dangerous?”

“It’s not dangerous or strange. I’m planning to start a separate business, but I need some living personnel, not skeletons.”

“Business? What is that?”

“Logy Skeleton, I will use my skeletons to transport people as well as supplies. Until now, there was no need for manpower because only goods were transported, but if people are also transported, manpower will be needed. I think it would be perfect to leave tasks such as controlling the passengers to mercenaries.”

The people of my territory were now very familiar with skeletons, but the people of other territories were not. It was obvious that it would be better to have someone who seemed to control the skeletons rather than just sending out skeleton mages or skeleton knights.

In an emergency, even force would have to be used, so rather than hiring regular employees, it was a better option to use mercenaries who would always carry out a request.

When I explained those parts briefly, Amy nodded slowly. It seemed like that was acceptable.

“It would be okay to tell them to leave as if they were going on an outing. good. Are there any other conditions?”

“Of course there are more.”

When Amy asked if there were any other conditions, I nodded and told the mercenaries what I was asking for. There were no particularly excessive demands, and they were generally requests that would help the territory grow.

Amy also nodded and agreed to that part, and in the end, Amy’s hooded mercenary group was officially hired into my territory.