Mercenaries and Adventurers

Without waiting for the waiter to introduce the types of ale and origin information provided at the banquet, Keir directly picked up a small bucket of ale and poured it into the wooden wine glass on the edge of his table.

With a splash, the golden wine poured out, quickly filling the glass.

Keir picked up the small wooden wine glass, which was not much bigger than his fist, brought it to his mouth and drank it.

It poured into my stomach in just a few mouthfuls.

"Well, phew - it's really refreshing. It feels like all the worries of the past few days have been washed away with the warm wine."

Keir said in admiration.

Mr. 'Dry Oriel' smiled slightly: "No matter how good the drink is, it can only relieve and numb yourself. Things are always there, and they will not diminish when you get drunk."

Mr. Scott next to him also nodded and waved to the waiter, asking him to get him a drink: "That's true, but today is not a day for discipline within the chamber of commerce. Today is a day for making new friends. , come, young knight, let’s touch each other.”

He chose the same ale as Keel, touched it with the refilled Keel, and took a swig. However, in the end, he only drank half of the fist-sized wine glass, not as good as Kiel who drank all the glasses.

Keir held the wooden wine glass and refilled himself with another cup of ale, asking, "Shall we start now? Isn't there any specific process for the banquet?"

Mr. Ottosfitten, who did not drink alcohol, asked his men to bring him a glass of honey water, and put a few drops of flower juice into it. He sipped it gently and took a few sips, and then answered Kiel's question: " Knight Kiel, the moon has not risen yet. The banquet will start after the first moon rises tonight, which is still a short time away."

"Of course, if you think you can, you can start now."

Kiel nodded casually, but his nod seemed to indicate that Mr. Otto Fitten meant that the banquet should start now. So the frail young businessman shook a handbell that was unique to his dining table.

A jingle bell rang.

The crisp sound spread throughout the open and lively banquet hall, and for just a moment, the musicians in the band stopped what they were doing and stood up one after another. The handsome bard, who had not yet finished singing the poem, shrugged helplessly, closed his mouth, and showed a charming apologetic smile to the ladies around him.

The chattering ladies stopped, and the men also stopped chatting among their friends. All the powerful businessmen in the town turned to look in the direction of the banquet host and walked slowly over.

At this moment, Keir felt dozens of eyes looking at him. Every part of his body was being scrutinized repeatedly, which made him quite uncomfortable. At this time, he finally understood the meaning of Priest Batal who asked him to dress better before coming. At this time, he could not be shabby or embarrassed at all, because the slightest bit of inappropriateness would be noticed by everyone. See.

It's very stressful.

And this kind of scrutinizing and curious gaze is far different from the enemy's sizing up during battle. There is no malice in it, but considering the status of these well-dressed men and women in front of them, as well as their usual bossy attitudes, the pressure is not small.

Kil took a breath and raised his head slightly. He wanted to put a smile on his face, but he still couldn't. The corners of his mouth remained subconsciously calm and cold.

This appearance is quite in line with everyone present's initial imagination of Kiel, the young northern knight.

Therefore, after most people glanced up and down at the seated Knight Kiel, they lost curiosity and withdrew their gaze.

Keir felt that it was very long. In fact, it only took two breaths from the time the bell rang to when everyone looked back. At this time, Mr. Otto Fitten, the owner of this banquet hall, stood up slightly, raised a delicate cup filled with honey water, and said: "Let us welcome the young knight from Kendall County in the north of the kingdom, Joe Kil. knight."

At this time, many waiters held wooden trays and walked out from behind the supporting stone pillars on both sides of the banquet hall, delivering wine glasses filled with various drinks to their respective owners. These guests who come to the banquet are regular guests, most of whom are well-known people in the town. The waiters also know them, and there are personal wine glasses for each other in the banquet hall.

At this moment, these wine glasses were filled with the wine that everyone was accustomed to drinking and served.

Each waiter was like a butterfly or a bee walking through the sea of ​​flowers, turning left and right with light steps, delivering the wine glasses to their respective owners in the shortest possible time.

Mr. Ottosfitten paused briefly, which was just enough time for everyone to pick up their glasses.

"This is a knight with a noble personality. For the sake of the people of the southern provinces who were stranded at the White Stone Wall Pass due to prejudice, he shouldered the burden of more than 700 people and vowed to lead them back to their homes and seek a peaceful and peaceful day. This What a noble man, everyone! Let us raise a toast and congratulate this young knight on his successful trip! Knight Joe Kiel, I wish you success and long-lasting military fortune!"

"I wish you success and long-term martial arts luck!"

Everyone, regardless of gender, wished in unison.

Keir took a deep breath, stood up excitedly, raised his glass, and drank it all in one gulp.

He didn't even know that his behavior could be so noble in other people's mouths? ah! It turns out that I don’t even know that I am so noble, and that I have done such a great thing!

Kil's face turned red and he became excited, and even his strong body trembled slightly with excitement.

At this time, Mr. 'Dry Flat Olier', after Mr. Otto Fitten sat down, also stood up holding an ivory wine glass: "Everyone, please relax. Tonight's banquet is for the knight Joe Kiel." It is set up, so friends who are curious about our young knight can sit down and eat, drink and talk together. At the same time, there will be a program at this banquet for everyone to enjoy."

He added: "The well-known bard in Dorne Town - 'Felicis the Song' will be the first to sing a new poem he wrote some time ago tonight. Everyone present except me, I believe everyone Haven’t heard of it yet, I guarantee everyone will be satisfied.”

At this time, the bard who came down from the wooden chair "Throne" - "Singing Felicis" walked out of the crowd, bowed slightly to the head of the banquet, and then turned to his real audience - the powerful people in the town. The ladies bowed deeply.

The ladies squealed with excitement, asking each other for any gossip about the new poems of the star in front of them.

But as Mr. 'Dry Oriel' said, he and the bard were the only two people present who knew the content of the new poem.

"Secondly, the dance team in our town will present a new dance that they have only performed once. Friends who were not able to attend the last banquet hosted by Baron Kendall must enjoy it. The dancers are all ready to give their best and present their best side to everyone."

He seemed quite proud of himself when he said this. Mr. Scott, who was on Kiel's right, explained in a low voice: "Dripari's little daughter is the lead dancer of the dance team, and he seems to have devoted a lot of energy to it. I just hope that my beautiful little daughter can become the main heir of a big noble family."

Kil raised his eyebrows, not expecting that this middle-aged businessman, who seemed to be shrewd and capable, had such a plan.

However, considering the other party's social status, using her daughter's beauty to climb into a noble family is a tricky way. As long as there is a clear path, this method can save the other party more than ten years of building relationships and jump directly from the starting point to the end point.

Keir chuckled twice, he didn't care about this, and these few key figures of the Joint Chamber of Commerce who seemed to have a good relationship obviously also had some complaints.

"Finally, our band will show off their unique skills and present to you the third movement of "Spring Flowers". Ah, this is a gorgeous movement that suits the month and day. When the time comes, please accompany the beautiful music, Let’s enjoy the sea of ​​flowers blooming outside the banquet hall on the terrace! Although the current situation is not good, just like the flower season that comes every year, days of peace and prosperity will always come. Please wait for that day.”

"Let us wish here that the nobles gathered in the provincial capital can lead many knights and armies to defeat the armies of neighboring countries on the southern border and regain our land and mineral deposits! Let us wish them victory, victory! victory!!"

The men and women in front of them all raised their wine glasses high and drank their drinks in one gulp while shouting victory congratulations in unison.

Keir also drank a full glass of ale with clear water and elegant aroma, and was quite satisfied.

But he noticed that while Mr. Deripari was speaking in high spirits to encourage the army of the southern province, the smiles on the faces of several other key businessmen sitting at the same table were hard to fathom.

This subtle observation made Kil's heart sink.

We are not afraid that the enemy is powerful, but we are afraid that some people within the organization have different interests and demands in this matter.

He used the cover of pouring wine to drink, frowned, and thought a lot in that moment.

He didn't know much about what the Fortune Fruit Chamber of Commerce was doing specifically, but from the fact that the other party directly allocated him a truck full of fuel and firewood, it was obvious that the Fortune Fruit Chamber of Commerce was involved in the specific supply of living supplies in the town.

Moreover, Mr. Scott has already said that Mr. 'Foolish O'Leary' used his young daughter to get into the local aristocracy. So specifically, his long-term interests are obviously generally in line with the local aristocratic lords. Consistent.

But Mr. Scott, who is sitting on his right, is a senior steward of the Burning Furnace Chamber of Commerce. Their chamber of commerce is obviously engaged in the iron trade. During these days, business is obviously booming. The chaotic situation may be a trouble for other chambers of commerce. But for them, it is obviously a great opportunity.

So, from the perspective of the interests of these businessmen, will the other party feel that the longer the current situation is, the better?

And what do the other two people sitting to the left of Kiel think?

Mr. Otto Fitten of the 'Treasure House' Chamber of Commerce, although according to the news, he is from a noble family, but is the chamber of commerce behind him leaning towards one side in the war? Logically speaking, no. After all, the chaotic situation will inevitably lead to the bankruptcy and decline of many shops in the town and the chambers of commerce behind them, which is detrimental to the development of the town as a whole.

Kiel failed to understand this, and could only think that Mr. Ottos Fetten was not very interested in military wars, or that he did not like Mr. "Dry Oriel" promoting these things in his banquet hall.

And the last one, the gray-haired old businessman, the senior steward of the Golden Sickle Chamber of Commerce, Mr. Wells-Bontorisa, sneered at the propaganda of war. Why?

Kil doesn't know yet at this time, but he will understand when he meets Bloodfangster tomorrow morning.

-

The banquet officially began, and the musicians returned to the bandstand in the corner, plucked their instruments, and used soothing tunes to fill the free time before the bard began to perform.

At this time, the protagonist bard temporarily resigned and went to the lounge on the first floor through the stairs in the corner of the second-floor banquet hall to change into the performance clothes he would wear later.

The waiters brought up all kinds of freshly baked delicacies made in the kitchen from the stairs that led them up and down. A large portion of roast beef ribs spread on an ornate silver plate was brought up, accompanied by a young man, A good-looking chef came up with him.

The young chef with a huge knife and fork in hand carefully cut a whole fan of beef ribs as big as half a person into portions for everyone to enjoy. Of course, the best part was sent to the head of the banquet by the waiters.

For the rest, guests who wanted to eat asked the waiter to take whatever they wanted.

The beef ribs delivered to Kiel were obviously about five times larger than those in the hands of other merchants. Mr. Scott explained with a smile: "Haha, everyone knows that knights eat a lot." Much bigger than normal people like us. In the past few years, the banquet restaurant would occasionally make this common sense mistake. After Otto Feten came up, he quickly corrected this mistake. Finally, it was not allowed to come to Dorne Town by chance. The knights were disappointed."

Mr. Ottosfitten only wanted a few small pieces of the tenderest beef, and barely ate a few bites, leaving the rest untouched.

Although Kil was not hungry, after all, he had been fighting hard monster meat these days, but faced with the tender steak sprinkled with spices, there was no reason not to eat it.

However, eating meat alone could not satisfy him. He was not polite and asked the waiter for a piece of bread that had just come out of the oven. He took the bread that was half the size of a human head and tore it open, and it was steaming. The bread is served with beef ribs cut into strips. Simply dip it in the sauce and eat it in your mouth.

When Mr. Bontorisa saw the way Kiel was eaten, he happily said that this way of eating was similar to the way of eating in the ancient Three Kingdoms in the north. He had been there once when he was young.

So while eating, he told people around him about his business travels in his youth.

"You must not believe it when I tell you one thing. I actually don't believe it myself. When I was young, I even saw Lady Winter under the command of the God of Agriculture."

He said this so cheerfully that the other people sitting at the table were surprised.

Mr. 'Fuck Ollier' was surprised that he had never heard this matter from this old guy. Mr. Scott smiled evilly and said: "Don't make it up on the spot, right? Are you old enough to be a fool?"

Mr. Bontorisa waved his hand: "Why are you lying to me? I didn't say it before. There is no need to say it. I have been a believer in the great God of Wealth for a long time. I have personally encountered the existence of his god. I am not telling myself this." Looking for trouble."

Mr. Ottosfitten covered his mouth with his hand and asked with bright eyes: "Stop being pretentious and tell me what's going on. Just in time, don't tell your old diplomatic stories today."

The old businessman was a little unhappy: "Knight Kiel hasn't heard of it yet. He wants to hear this, right?"

Keir waved his hand: "It's okay, it's okay. I'll listen to whatever you say."

Mr. Bontorisa, the senior steward of the Golden Sickle Chamber of Commerce, briefly told a personal story that he had rarely told.

-

"That was when I was in my twenties, probably more than twenty years ago. To be honest, even today it surprises me. I hope the great God of Wealth will forgive me for the story I will tell next. There is no betrayal of faith.”

"At that time, I was not a member of the 'Golden Sickle' Chamber of Commerce. I organized a chamber of commerce myself, with seven or eight people, all listening to me, specializing in transporting a rare commodity that was in short supply in the north. To be honest, even if you don't see it there for half a year, Time is full of wind and snow, but in fact, in this seemingly poor place, the nobles are very rich. After all, the Three Northern Kingdoms have existed longer than the Empire. It was almost not long after the collapse of the ancient Magic Empire that the Three Northern Kingdoms were first established. ”

"At that time, I found out that there was a lack of self-heating volcanic rock in the Three Kingdoms region of the north. It was the kind of black hard brittle rock that is only produced in volcanic craters. This kind of strange rock that contains the fury of fire and the tolerance of the earth can only be knocked when it is struck. , it will release the heat accumulated inside, which is most suitable for cold areas in the north. Those rich nobles will lay them on the floor of the castle hall. As long as someone walks on them, it will warm the originally cold hall of the castle. Like spring!"

"I spent all my wealth and chartered twenty trucks. I first went to the south where this thing was produced, filled all the trucks, and then went all the way north, through the entire kingdom, to the cold northern Three Gorges. Kingdom Region.”

The others ate and listened to Mr. Bontolisa's youthful stories.

"As expected, there were a lot of troubles and problems along the way. But how smart I was at the time. When I encountered danger, I led my men to abandon the carriage and run away on horseback. At the same time, I also specially removed the axle fixing pin of the carriage so that the carriage could be beaten. Every force I proposed stared at the twenty immovable carriages filled with stones! Haha! The bandits all retreated in anger, and some local forces even had to pay me to go back, because My carriage and the stone slabs on top of it even blocked the trade route."

"In this way, it took me half a year to get there. To be honest, I haven't seen snow before, but you must have never imagined what it would be like to have heavy snow for half a month. At that time, we had to sit in a carriage most of the time. On the road, specially sent people to walk back and forth on the surface of the untied stone, just to let it release heat and ensure the temperature of the team, so as not to freeze to death the horses that cannot adapt to the local temperature and climate."

"It was a month after I arrived there that I sold about half of the heated volcanic rocks and became very famous in the local area, when I met the Lady of Winter - Tweety Ness."

"I'm sure you won't believe me. As the incarnation of the god Lady Winter, she is a short girl. She is not as tall as she appears on the statue. She is wearing a colorful fur animal skin suit and is carrying a person who is bigger than herself. With his giant ax, he just walked through the heavy snow and found me, uh, my caravan on the trade road where not even a single creature could see it."

"You must not know why the gods came here. Haha, He said that He has been building a new palace for himself in the past hundred years. When he went out to cut some ancient trees, he heard from believers that there were strange floor-heating stones from the south. So I came here personally."

"Haha, it sounds a little disrespectful, but this reason is really cute. I doubted his identity at the time, especially because the other person was wearing thin clothes, just a colorful animal skin wrapped randomly around his body, but he was also carrying a bigger than a human being. Giant Axe. He said he didn’t believe it and wanted to see with his own eyes whether what he said was true or false. As you know, I just started talking nonsense at that time, and it really came true.”

"Ms. Winter shouted some unintelligible words. As a result, the snowflakes that fell on the ground gathered into a structure made of ice and snow. Elk, tens of meters tall, rose from the foot of our carriage. And the horses of the caravan were all We fell asleep standing up. In this way, we hugged the carriage tightly and walked for most of a day on the roaring backs of elk made of tens of meters of ice and snow, against the huge wind and snow that could not be seen clearly for several meters. Stopped in front of a palace in a huge mountain range.”

Mr. Bontorisa's story was extremely bizarre, beyond the imagination of the surrounding listeners. At least Keir couldn't believe that the person who experienced all this was sitting in front of them and eating with them.

"I can't remember exactly what the palace looked like. Ms. Winter said it will take some time to repair. Before it is repaired, a mortal like me would be embarrassed to let everyone see the unfinished palace. In the end, the remaining Half of the volcanic heating stones were sold to this god, and he was very satisfied and gave me a whole box of gold, haha. I later relied on the money to get to where I am now."

"It was because other local nobles that I had made an appointment with before did not buy the agreed stones, so I fled the place with others. Maybe my wanted order has not been revoked yet. Even if I explained that it was sold to Even the gods didn’t believe it, saying that I must have sold it to a local nobleman alone. But no one admitted it.”

After the story was told, the eating and drinking at the banquet came to an end for the time being. The bard who had changed his clothes came out. The waiters had already laid a new roll of carpet in the center of the banquet, and there was also a 20 cm high small stage.

The minstrel show is about to begin.

The ladies asked the banquet waiters to move the soft stools to the place closest to the performance early, while the men also held wine glasses and stood on both sides, ready to enjoy the performance.

Kiel and the others kept eating and drinking. As soon as Mr. Bontorisa's story ended, it happened to be picked up here. Obviously, there were too many details to be discovered in the old businessman's story.

It’s just that Kiel probably didn’t have this opportunity, but Mr. Ottosfitten, whose eyes lit up when he heard the story, grabbed the old businessman’s sleeve and asked in a low voice what he was talking about.

He obviously had no interest in the banquet program at all.

He was far less excited than this story about gods.

Kiel didn't know that not long after today, Mr. Otto Fitten said goodbye to the town of Dorne. Although he did not resign from his position in the Chamber of Commerce, he also took a long leave, as if he wanted to relive the strange experience of the old businessman.

His close friends could easily guess why this man placed his hope in the gods for a cure for his frail body. He didn't know what was wrong with his body, and it had to be cured by God himself.