Mercenaries and Adventurers

Facing the many curious and cautious gazes, Kil stared back with wide eyes. Regardless of their age, those people, like frightened birds, hurriedly lowered their heads.

With a snort, Keir carefully tied the reins in his hand to the horse-stopping wooden post at the door of the shop.

The wooden post where the horse was parked looked like it had not been used very often and was a bit dusty and dirty.

Bloodyaster also put down the saddle of the young girl who was riding the same horse, and whispered something to the other party. The girl nodded, turned around quickly, followed him and walked quickly into the shop selling beans.

"Kiel, then let's say goodbye. It's still early. I'll go to the taverns in the town where the guards often go. In the evening, I'll go to the taverns where people from all walks of life go. Then I may not come back tonight, haha. , please don’t worry about me, I’ve been to this place before, and it’s actually very friendly to outsiders.”

"As long as you have money in your pocket!" After making a wisecrack at the end, Bloody Fangster, who was in his thirties, looked like he was several years younger. He waved his hand and urged the horses to go to another street.

Keir shrugged. He just didn't like this place. He felt that the people here were too divided and not as affectionate and sheltered as other places.

The people who live here are very different.

There are debtors with negative net worth, there are also poor people who live in places like birdcages and honeycombs, and there are also ordinary people who are addicted to gambling at first glance, or have one or two dirty money.

These miserable people account for at least half of the town's population.

In addition, people who make a living from various shops and people from the chamber of commerce make up the other half. And they work hard to provide various services and labor for only a very small number of 'big people'.

Although Keir didn't care about it, he didn't like it.

A thug who didn't look very stout walked out of the shop selling beans. This man probably still had some power in the eyes of others. He might have even killed someone before. He was a bandit who didn't want to rob for a living, but At this time, the thug walked over cautiously, stood next to the blood-licking grass, bent down and whispered to Keir who came over: "Sir, I will guard the horses for you."

Keir nodded, stopped talking, and walked into the store.

-

‘Surplus Pods’, a shop that specializes in selling all kinds of beans and grains, has the same entrance as other nearby shops, or in other words, it is similar to most shops in the entire town of Dorne.

There is a thick wooden door at the entrance of the store, which is now open for people to enter and exit. At the same time, the door is not big. Mud bricks and wood make up the same thick wall, which looks very solid at first glance.

The front entrance of the shop has no windows, but there is a double-layered roof for ventilation and lighting on the top of the house. The wooden window between the two-layered roofs is controlled by a rope and can be opened by pulling it, ensuring ventilation and lighting during the day.

At night, by pulling the rope, the wooden window can be closed to ensure that the shop will not be broken into and stolen from the top.

Except for the thug who just walked out of the store to help him look after the horse, as soon as Kil entered the door, in addition to a few customers who were still picking out beans and grains, there were more shop assistants and thugs with their arms folded.

Behind the original wooden counter, the owner of the shop was missing, and Ms. Fenia, who had just come in not long ago, was not here either.

Following the gazes of some people, a wooden door leading to other rooms at the back of the shop was watched nervously by those people.

Obviously, the clerks and thugs in the store had no intention of working anymore. They were all distracted by some action of Ms. Fenia who came in one step before? It attracted all the attention.

Then they noticed Kiel one by one, who was wearing heavy, fully-covered metal armor. Kiel was not wearing a helmet, so his young face was exposed. Although people thought he was very young, his overwhelming and fierce aura still made people feel that he was young. No one dared to act rashly.

No one even came up to ask what Kiel was doing.

It's really unqualified.

-

Kil didn't care either. He walked around in the wooden shop, carefully distinguishing the various beans like other customers who came in to buy beans.

In the rectangular shop, the middle of the shop is filled with buckets of various beans.

There are green, red, brown, black, white and blue. Among them, Kiel could just barely make out the white and yellow chickpeas, and the green spherical fresh green peas.

Most of the others were dried beans, and Kiel had never seen them.

He randomly picked up one, looked at it on his fingers, and crushed it. Kil was very bored.

Secretly seeing Keir crushing the beans like this, the thugs and guys around him trembled, but no one dared to say anything. Several other customers in the store also noticed that Kil, a warrior who should not appear in an ordinary food store, were also startled. They clutched their money bags and ran quickly from the door of the store. .

Keir just stared at each other with other people in the store.

As soon as anyone was stared at by him, that person's hands and feet would soon stiffen, and they would lean against the wall of the shop timidly. It seemed that only the seemingly solid shop wall could make them feel safe.

There were obviously eight people in the store, not including Kiel, but the atmosphere at this time was as if Kiel had surrounded the eight of them by himself.

Fortunately, this suffocating awkward atmosphere soon ended.

The door to the rest room at the back of the shop was opened, and Ms. Fenia came out with her only remaining girl and another tall, thin middle-aged man.

The middle-aged man had a neat and slender beard. He looked like a shrewd man at first glance. As soon as he went out, he noticed an extra armored soldier in the shop.

Just as he was sizing up Kiel, Ms. Fenia walked up to Kiel and waved to summon the store clerks and security thugs: "Come here, come here. I have something to announce."

At this time, these thugs and guys came close to the wall while looking at the store owner and steward.

Although the tall, thin middle-aged man usually manages this grain store, everyone knows that the real owner of the store is actually Ms. Fenia.

And every time Ms. Fenea takes time to come to Dorne Town to inspect the shops, she will distribute some small gifts to those who work best among them.

The thug might give you a brand new self-defense dagger, and the guy a new set of cloth clothing.

Their salary and remuneration are not cheap.

Moreover, most of the thugs vaguely knew that behind Ms. Fenia was the leader of the bandit gang who was somewhat famous on the business road - Mountain Wolf Barney.

The shops in the town of Dorne basically have some kind of background. After all, if you don’t have the backing, you can’t afford to open a shop, right?

But the backstage supporter of the 'Fuyu Beanjia' food store is extremely hard.

Everyone had gathered, and the only person left was still outside the shop helping Knight Kiel to look after his horse, and now he was also looking into the shop.

Ms. Fenia walked to Kil's side, stood a little back, turned Kil's face to these people, and then said: "Everyone, this is Knight Joe Kil. Although he is young, he is already a mature man. Very powerful, a powerful knight.”

When they heard that the young man Kiel was a knight, everyone who had already guessed it was still whispering. Only the middle-aged steward of the original store looked bad.

Ms. Fenia continued.

"This Lord Knight is currently leading hundreds of young refugees to find safe settlements where they can escape the chaos. Those refugees were originally people who moved west to escape the chaos, but because of the deliberate obstruction of the White Stone City Wall, many of them They are all stranded there. Now, as a knight with noble character, Knight Kiel is taking over this responsibility."

These words were incomprehensible. Many people did not understand what Ms. Fenia meant, and whispered: "I might as well live here."

"Shit, once this shitty place comes, it's going to be hard to leave."

"You're right. It's better to find a place and continue to be a bandit. It seems that being a bandit is a good idea in the world now?"

Those chattering words did not affect Ms. Fenia. The middle-aged steward, who already knew what the lady was going to say, clenched his fists, glanced at Ms. Fenia with cold eyes, and muttered some unpleasant words.

"When the Knights of Kil passed by my hotel, I and my friend Barney." Here, Barney's name is accented. Although others may sound like it is a reminder to them, Kil knows that this In the accent, it is probably necessary to gnash one's teeth, so the accent is pronounced.

"My friends and I agreed that Knight Kiel's act was a great act of kindness and could be praised by all who knew about it. We discussed it and provided a sum of supplies and a small amount of weapons for this purpose. Leave it to the Lord Knight and the refugees under his command. Of course, this is not enough, far from enough."

Speaking of this, Ms. Fenia showed a full smile with superb acting skills, like a gorgeous blooming flower: "Fortunately, I still have a shop specializing in selling beans and grains in Dorne Town. The empty refugees are in need. These can fill your stomach with beans. So, I decided here to donate some of the cash used for transactions in the store, as well as all the beans in stock, to the Joe Kiel Knights for free! To support His noble act of kindness!”

After saying that, Ms. Fenia raised her hands in the air with great joy, and excitedly threw the news like stones from a trebuchet, hitting the ears of the waiters and thugs who were stunned by the outrageous news.

"No, this."

"Is it true, boss, that all the beans in the store have been donated?"

"What about running the store?"

"But Barney the Mountain Wolf knows, so it's not a problem, right?"

"What do we do? The store money and beans are gone."

The tall, thin middle-aged steward with a bad expression stretched out his hand and pressed it down. He had a high prestige among the waiters and thugs, so with just a simple action, the others stopped complaining.

After coughing lightly, he glanced at Kiel secretly, and then said in a hoarse voice: "Since it is the boss's decision, and the boss himself is here, what's the use of you guys talking about this? Besides, Fenia, you must have arranged the work for the rest of us, right? After all, it’s not good for the store to be empty. One day less money is a day’s loss.”

He then said maliciously: "It's just a pity that the reputation accumulated by the store over the years is gone. If the store's operation needs to be changed in the future, you and I will have to jointly explain it to the chamber of commerce. After all, grain stores are indispensable in the town. part of it.”

Ms. Fenia narrowed her eyes and said with bursts of smiles: "Of course I know, there will naturally be a series of plans later. To be honest, selling beans is really not worthy of my status. In this town, Ms. At our banquets, I was always embarrassed to explain why my shop sold beans instead of something beautiful.”

The guys and thugs couldn't get in touch with what the two bosses were saying, so they had no choice but to prick up their ears and listen carefully to what they were saying.

Vaguely, the words were somewhat contradictory.

"Now, everyone. Raul, go and get the store management contract. I can use it."

The middle-aged manager narrowed his eyes: "Why do you want this? What on earth do you want to do?"

"There's no need to inform you. Barney knows what I'm going to do. Do you want to go over and ask him? Huh? Do you dare?"

"Why don't you dare?" As he said this, the middle-aged manager's tone suddenly dropped, and he cursed under his breath and returned to the back room to retrieve the hidden store management contract.

This deed represents the store owner’s permanent right to operate the land within the area of ​​the store.

It is something like a land deed issued by the Dorne Town Chamber of Commerce to the store owners after they jointly build a circle of shops in the center of the town and a surrounding area.

Because this land belongs to a certain great noble, and the great noble leased the land use rights of Dorne Town and its surroundings to the Chamber of Commerce, and the Chamber of Commerce issued the award after establishing the initial town and establishing a management system. operation and use contract.

Because the land belongs to the nobles, something like a store title deed can only exist as a business contract.

"Guys, you all go out now and contact me for empty carriages and sacks of beans, a lot of them! Before the end of this afternoon, I will transport all the beans in the store to the open space outside the town where the refugees live."

"And you, my old guys." This time, Ms. Fenia said to the thugs: "You first take out the sacks in the store, fill them with beans, and start moving. I don’t want to see beans again for a day.”

"Yes, ma'am."

Everyone responded and then started to get busy.

I was a little reluctant to give up at first, but once I started working, I didn’t care about that anymore.

The store clerks ran out of the store and went to the nearby chamber of commerce to rent carriages and go to the grocery store to buy bundles of sacks.

They are all shops on the same street, so they don’t even require a deposit. You can use them first and pay later by relying on face and trust. Especially in these depressed days, other shops and chambers of commerce are eager to have something to do.

The thugs in the store rolled up the sleeves of their linen clothes, revealing their stronger arms. They moved out the existing sacks in the store from familiar places, and then used large wooden shovels to shovel in all the various beans stored in the wooden barrels outside. In the bag, after it is full, tie the bag tightly with string again and again.

With a click, the dagger cut off the excess rope, and a bag of beans was ready.

Ms. Fenia motioned to her girl to take out all the cash from the cash box in the store.

"Knight Kiel, here, as agreed, everything in the store is yours."

Ms. Fenia whispered into Kil's ear.

Kil hadn't said a word before, but now he chuckled, took the small money box without embarrassment, opened it, took a look, and then closed it.

"Everything is given to me, can you keep these people in check? They won't be able to eat you after they know the truth?"

The two were very close and spoke softly, so that the other thugs in the same room could not hear what was said.

Ms. Fenia also whispered: "Oh, you feel sorry for me now. When you asked for conditions, you didn't consider me, a poor person. How will I live in the future?"

"I'm just kidding, I'm just asking, don't take it seriously. I know you must have a way, or are you preparing for it? Let me guess, there are other shops in Dorne town? Or there is a deposit in a certain chamber of commerce. Money to guarantee survival?”

The lady's expression didn't change. It seemed that Keir might have guessed the answer correctly, or he might not have guessed the answer correctly.

"Don't worry, Knight Kil. Since I agreed, I will feed your greed. The agreed terms are the agreements. You don't have to worry about me. Those stupid men will direct their anger at me. Before, I would give them a new goal and work hard to achieve it."

Keir knew what the other party relied on. He didn't point it out. He just said: "Am I also one of the stupid men?"

"No, you are not a man. If you ask me, you are still a boy."

"snort."

Kil was angry, turned away, folded his arms and stopped talking.

Behind her was only Ms. Freneya's hearty laughter: "Knight Kiel, thank you, thank you so much. A Fresnel rose that could only rely on others to grow in the past will grow and bloom alone in the future. Instead of withering in the darkness. In the underground caves.”

Keir blew out a breath through his nose: "I just hope that this rose will not get used to using its sharp thorns to prick every passerby it targets."

"You can't say for sure. Men will always approach beautiful flowers unconsciously, oh hehehe."

-

After a while, the tall and thin middle-aged steward came over with a stinking face. He first noticed that the cash box of the store was placed at the feet of Knight Kiel, but he did not dare to say anything about it, so he could only signal with his eyes. What happened to Ms. Fenia?

After taking the business contract sandwiched in the ledger, Ms. Fenia explained something in a low voice. Although the middle-aged manager was reluctant, she still curled her lips and acknowledged it.

"Take this useless account book, we won't be dealing in food from now on. Come two people and come with me."

After Ms. Fenia finished speaking, she took the girl and two stronger thugs out of the door. The middle-aged manager wanted to chase her out and ask Ms. Fenia what she wanted to do with the business contract.

But the lady said, "Take good care of the knight." He was blocked and turned back.

Kil chuckled and waved to the middle-aged manager: "Find me a sturdy chair. I want to sit and rest."

"Yes, yes sir. I will get you a chair right now."

The other party brought a seemingly sturdy wooden chair, but Kil stepped on it, crushing the wooden chair with one step.

"Didn't you hear that clearly? Strong! Chair!"

Kil frowned and looked at him. When the knight stared at him like this, the middle-aged steward immediately broke out in cold sweat and replied with trembling teeth: "I understand, I understand."

Then he searched around stiffly, and finally pulled out a wooden barrel.

"Sir Knight, although it is not a chair, this thing is definitely strong and sturdy! Please, please use this."

Kil rolled his eyes at the other person, then pulled the empty barrel over, lifted up his cloak and sat down.

He picked up the cash box in the store, opened it, and casually counted the various coins in the cash box.

"What are you looking at? Come and help!"

After being scolded by the young man Kiel, the tall and thin middle-aged businessman had no choice but to come over and carefully help the knight take out the money boxes and coins that he had originally managed and sort them into categories.

Kil knew what Ms. Fenia was probably going to do, so he held back the middle-aged steward who might have guessed and caused trouble, as an assistant to save things from many twists and turns.