Became an Assistant at Banco #3(3)
Mercenary Captain Karl, who had gone to deposit the advance payment received from Lord Montefeltro at Banco, returned to the campsite.
He was met by one of his subordinates, Seth, who was one of the three mercenaries who had previously warned him, as he returned on horseback.
Seth approached the returning captain without hesitation, taking the reins of the horse and striking up a conversation.
“How did your visit to Banco go?”
From the way he asked, it seemed likely that he had made a bet with his fellow mercenaries.
The nature of the bet was obvious without even asking.
“Did you also get ripped off, Captain?”
As Seth asked, a group standing at a distance, eavesdropping on their conversation, came into view.
They were the participants in this bet.
“Nothing out of the ordinary happened.”
The captain replied as calmly and nonchalantly as he could, but he couldn't fool Seth, who had been by his side for many years.
“You got fleeced too, right?”
“Ahem!”
When Karl avoided answering, Seth immediately whistled loudly and raised his voice.
“See! I told you, the captain would definitely get fleeced there too!”
Despite not saying a word himself, he grew irritated at the sight of his subordinate making noise instead of quietly letting the matter pass.
"Well, I said nothing happened, didn't I?"
"Really? Nothing happened there?"
When Seth retorted, Captain Karl just nodded solemnly with a stern expression.
With all his years of experience, Captain Karl couldn't afford to be the laughing stock of his subordinates just because he couldn't manage to save face.
As Captain Karl nonchalantly returned to his tent, Seth's expression crumpled immediately.
He had expected to be scolded, but that wasn't the case.
"Damn it!"
Immediately upon returning to the camp, Mercenary Captain Karl began preparing for an orc subjugation.
Given their reputation, orc subjugation was a trivial task, and for that reason, they had no intention of spending much time on this mission.
They planned to finish the task as quickly as possible and move on to the next job.
"What did you say?"
But then, a problem arose.
The scouts they had sent ahead returned with unexpected news.
"An orc shaman?"
"Yes. There was a shaman in their group."
"And the size of the group was quite large, wasn't it? It's not the level of a typical tribe. It was a mega-tribe formed by the union of several tribes."
As two subordinates, looking as fierce as Captain Karl, reported this, Karl and the rest of his men couldn't hide their bewildered expressions.
What was thought to be a simple orc subjugation had become complicated with the sudden appearance of an orc shaman.
'An orc shaman?'
At this moment, Karl was reminded of the boy who had asked him several unnecessary questions at the bank.
That boy had definitely mentioned something about an orc shaman.
'I thought it was nonsense, but how could this happen.'
At the time of the conversation with the boy, Karl had dismissed the topic, thinking that the existence of an orc shaman was absurd.
The likelihood of encountering an orc shaman in a typical orc subjugation was almost negligible.
"If that's true, we've got a real headache. A shaman, no less."
Karl looked panicked, and his subordinates felt the same.
The subordinates each began to speak out.
"If there's a shaman... then this mission is too much, isn't it?"
"If you're cursed by an orc shaman, there's no solution. It's not even our area of expertise."
"What sorcerer? There was no talk of such nonsense from the start!"
There were more than a few subordinates expressing their dissatisfaction.
Several of them began to harbor doubts about this commission.
"It did seem too easy. We wondered why we were called for a mere orc subjugation."
"I thought the same. The lord here has deceived us."
"He lured us out by hiding that fact? Is he insane?"
"Possibly. If he had disclosed the true nature of the task, we would never have accepted it."
"But what are we going to do now? Give up? Or somehow manage it?"
"We can't deal with an orc shaman."
Even according to their common knowledge, there were very few professions capable of standing against an orc shaman.
"Without a wizard or a spirit master, it's impossible, right? There's no way to counter the sorcery."
"Is there no Templar in the nearby order? A Templar might manage somehow."
"Or maybe find a witch? Remember how we solved that problem last time with the help of a witch doctor?"
"No, what kind of witchcraft is this! What if the church starts talking about it? Do you want to be accused of heresy for conspiring with a witch?"
"That's why we need to handle it as quietly as possible. Who's going around spreading the word?"
As the subordinates' voices grew louder, Captain Karl, who had been lost in thought alone, raised his hand to quiet everyone down.
In the ensuing silence.
As the subordinates' eyes turned to him, Seth spoke up.
"What are you planning to do?"
To that question, Karl shared his thoughts.
"We can't just give up on this matter. We have a reputation that we've built up until now."
Just as the subordinates were about to raise an outcry again, Karl quickly continued.
"This time, if we just call a magician, we should be able to handle it somehow. The scale of the operation is within our capabilities, since it's only a sorcerer involved."
At this, Seth expressed his doubts.
"So, you're thinking of calling in a magician? Won't that be more trouble than it's worth? It's not like you can hire a magician for a small sum."
Most of the subordinates seemed to agree with Seth's comment.
Upon hearing those words, Captain Karl showed a reaction.
"The cost will be billed to the lord here who deceived us."
