Deverick eagerly laid out the items, hoping that Ethan might change his mind. Clothes, boots, a dagger and even a small knife – he took them all out. He even spread out a bag to replace the torn rucksack and managed to sell a good number of the recommended items.

“But they’re all quite worn out.”

Deverick clicked his tongue as he looked at the bag that was about to be thrown away.

Not only was it full of holes, but it was so worn that the fabric had become so smooth and thin that it would tear with just a little force. It was barely holding the things inside at the moment, but it wouldn’t have been long before the bottom tore.

“Yeah. I’ve taken a lot of damage fighting monsters all this time.”

“Well, of course. Travelling with a frail woman must have been no small hardship. I heard you even went off the continent to get her treated? You must be a very devoted husband. No wonder you spent all your money to get her treated!”

Ethan’s excuses were just what Deverick needed. After all, other people’s love stories were often more entertaining than any romance novel.

“Well, it’s been a while since I’ve been back to Granat. So I’m not quite up to date. Is there any news?”

“Hmm, well, if we’re talking about big news lately, the biggest would be the execution of the Mercenary King.”  

“That is quite surprising news. The Mercenary King himself?”   

Although Ethan had expected the rumours to spread, he pretended not to know and asked back.   

“Right, you said you were a mercenary too? Then you probably know more about him than I do. They say he was so strong that wars could be won by hiring him – that’s why he was called the ‘Mercenary King’.”  

“This is truly shocking news. Although, to be honest, I thought the Imperial Palace would take action sooner or later, since he was called ‘King’.”

“They say it made him even more resentful. I heard they went so far as to put his head on a pole in the capital square! And it’s not like he committed treason.”

“On display? But that’s a punishment reserved for traitors. The Mercenary King must have seriously offended someone high up.”

“Exactly. Everyone is whispering about it. Of course, with the soldiers around, no one dares to say anything out loud.”

Ethan watched his reaction carefully and, seeing that the atmosphere had eased enough, decided to steer the conversation towards the information he wanted.

“Then things must be tense in Rigo as well, since the Mercenary King used to live there.”

“Hmm, I’m not a mercenary, so I don’t know much about how things are over there, but I’ve heard that mercenaries have been avoiding noble jobs lately.”

Since merchants often hired mercenaries as guards, he knew many of them – and it wasn’t unusual for him to hear the news that someone he knew had died the very next day.

Merchants had always been on good terms with mercenaries, but dealing with nobles and royalty had brought them even closer together.

After all, nobles and royals were the main clients for most jobs, whether it was war or monster hunting.

Soldiers belonged to nobles, and mercenaries were treated like cattle, worth less than commoners. Nobles paid them a pittance and used them as little more than human shields.

Among them were many merchants who had befriended mercenaries – and who would want those who sent their friends to die in vain? Especially when they used their rank to oppress them.

In the Granat Empire, class was a shackle from which one could never escape.

Deverick remembered how shocked he had been when he first left the Empire.

There were classes too, but at least there were ways of rising above them.

If you worked hard, regardless of your class, you could be hired for any job, and as you built up a track record, you could even earn a title through promotion.

Ordinary peasants working the fields might not know it, but merchants – especially travelling merchants and members of the merchant guilds – had seen enough of the other nations to realise just how stifling the Empire really was.

“Avoiding noble commissions? Hah, that’s a dangerous move.”

“I can’t say I don’t understand how they feel.”

Deverick smiled bitterly. He might have done the same had he been in their position.

Wherever the Mercenary King was, the number of mercenary deaths dropped dramatically.

Where ten would normally die, only one or two would be lost – to the mercenaries he was like a god of the battlefield.

Deverick himself had only seen the Mercenary King once in passing, when he had gone to supply them with weapons and medicine.

There had been wounded, of course, but at least none of them had been near death.

Amongst the mercenaries laughing loudly as they piled the corpses of the Grips like a mountain, Deverick had spotted a close friend of his. He toasted those who had survived that day.

The outsiders whispered of the mercenaries’ brutality and savagery, but the merchants who had actually met them thought otherwise.

How could they be expected to stay sane when they faced death every day?

As Ethan had said, it was incredibly dangerous for mercenaries to ignore the orders of nobles.

The Granat Empire didn’t have many laws, but the few it had were ruthless.

If a commoner harmed a noble, they were executed on the spot. And if circumstances allowed, even the innocent could be put to death.

And yet, to defy such nobles?

“Well, doesn’t it still feel somehow satisfying? You managed to put those high and mighty nobles in their place.”

Deverick said, trying to steer the conversation away from the growing heaviness.

A single mercenary had won a victory that even nobles couldn’t achieve – of course, he must have been a thorn in the side of the nobles.

“Especially the war with Kaulon! Just hearing about it makes my skin crawl! A hundred mercenaries sent to die, and they came back with the head of the enemy commander! Who would have thought that the mercenaries they baited would come back alive? And that’s not all – the words he threw in the faces of the nobles are also famous!”

“To think they couldn’t even catch a guy like me. Looks like the magic of the nobles isn’t as all-powerful as I thought, huh?”

Ethan said with a smile.

Looking back now, it was indeed funny.

Covered from head to toe in blood – his own and others’ – barely able to keep his eyes open, yet he had dragged himself to find the noble who had tried to trick him.

The nobleman who couldn’t abstain from wine even in the middle of a war, sitting in a fancy chair with a slave for a footrest.

Ethan had walked right up to him and thrown the severed head he was holding.

He could still see the nobleman’s horrified face as the head of the enemy commander rolled across the floor, eyes wide open in death.

Even though Ethan had been so badly wounded that it was a miracle he hadn’t dropped dead on the spot, he had laughed out loud.

“Thanks to that, the Mercenary King was quite popular even on our side. Every time he appeared, there were stories of heroic deeds – he truly deserved to be called the Mercenary King.”

Starting with the war against Kaulon, they had also won the war against Trezen.

The odds had been stacked against them, too – the battlefield was swarming with monsters, which made the situation even worse.

But the fact that he had wiped out the monster hordes and killed the enemy commander became a legendary story, told again and again.

Both the war and the monster hunts that followed were carried out in the worst possible conditions, without a shred of support.

They were suicide missions disguised as “missions”.

The nobles had sent him to die, but he had survived each time.

Of course, some scoffed at calling a mercenary a “king”, but the way he lived and fought silenced those voices.

Even commoners, who usually looked down on mercenaries, couldn’t help but admire the Mercenary King.

It wasn’t always admiration, but at least it wasn’t contempt.

For them, social class was like an unyielding wall – a wall that could never be climbed.

A commoner was born a commoner, lived a commoner and died a commoner. It wasn’t just them – every class was bound in the same way.

But when a mercenary, cast to the bottom of society, brought back tales of heroism, even commoners who had never cared before began to listen.

All his exploits became a symbol of hope – proof that even a commoner could achieve greatness.

Of course, if they openly admired him in front of soldiers or nobles, they would surely be punished, so they whispered in secret. But behind closed doors, they would break out the drinks and celebrate quietly.

The news that the Mercenary King had been executed was nothing short of catastrophic for those who had spent so long quietly celebrating him.

The once bustling taverns were now empty, and on the rare occasions that people did gather, it wasn’t long before the place was filled with sobs.

“So, are you on your way to Rigo?”

“Well, where else would a mercenary have to go?”

“True enough. Sounds like a long journey. Still, I feel a bit lighter after talking about the Mercenary King for the first time in a while. Here – your clothes are on the house. You’ve been picking out clothes and shoes for your wife all this time and haven’t even looked at anything for yourself. It’s good to take care of your wife, but you should also take care of yourself.”

“But it’s hard to find anything in my size.”

“You are lucky. I do a lot of business with mercenaries, you know. And mercenaries tend to be big guys, so don’t worry – I’m your size.”

“Well, that’s perfect. Do you have leather armour by any chance?”

“Leather instead of plate?”

“Plate is too stiff – makes it hard to move. And it’s noisy too.”

“Haha, sensitive to noise, are you? You’re right, plate is sturdy, but it’s also heavy and stiff – not very comfortable.”

Deverick pulled a box from inside the wagon and began to lay out the items stored inside.

“It’s tanned and hardened, so it’s very strong. Normally leather armour needs to be oiled regularly to keep it from drying out, but how much maintenance can mercenaries really manage, right? This is a new product that a blacksmith I know made as an experiment and gave it to me. You’ve heard of Pinus, right? That four-legged monster that moves swiftly across the desert.”

“Ah, so this is made from Pinus hide?”

“That’s right. Because it lives in the desert, it’s naturally resistant to drying out. It’s also incredibly tough.”

“This is a fine piece of equipment. All right, I’ll take this as well.”

“Ah, thank you, my friend!”

Deverick’s lips curled up as if they could reach for the sky. Today’s sales alone had far exceeded a week’s worth.

“Now then. Will this be enough for the by-products I gave you earlier and Iena’s leather?”

Ethan pulled a neatly preserved piece of leather from his bag.

“This is more than enough! By my count, this is three gold coins and seventy silver coins. But since you bought so much, I’ll just take four gold coins!”

Having sealed a good deal, Deverick quickly grabbed Ethan’s hand and shook it up and down. Thanks to this, If, who was nestled in Ethan’s arms, was also shaken up and down with him.

“All right, all right. You and your wife need somewhere to change, right? I’ll wait outside, so go ahead and change in the wagon.”

Deverick said, obviously in a good mood.

Ethan chuckled at Deverick’s cheerfulness, gathered up the clothes and stood up.

They had bought everything from head to toe – and for two people, no less – so the cost was considerable. It wasn’t a problem as they had bought what they needed, but still…

‘I guess I’ll have to hunt a monster or two on the way.’