abcnovels
Chapter 67 - Mercenary (1)
Chapter 67 - Mercenary (1)
Chapter 67 - Mercenary (1)
Translator: Seven
Editors: Ana_Banana, Yahiko
Frey called Gisellan aside and asked him for a favor.
When Gisellan heard what he wanted, he rubbed his chin.
“Hm. You want to disguise yourself?”
“Right. Pillat is the home of the Blake Family. Have you heard about Isaka Blake?”
“Yes. It’s highly likely that he is connected to the Demigods… that’s what you meant isn’t it?”
“That’s right. And he’s after me right now. The Blake Family is a place that I must visit someday, but it is too soon. So I’d prefer to avoid meeting them.”
“…I see.”
It was an unquestionable fact that Frey stood out because his grey hair color was rare on the continent.
If he was to walk around Pillat as he was now, it was guaranteed that Isaka would find out about it in less than a day, which would definitely lead to a confrontation.
“I can change my appearance with magic. The problem is that I do not have any proof of identity.”
In order to travel around the continent, one needed to have proof of identity.
All Frey had now was his student ID from the Westroad Academy.
However, that wasn’t enough.
For the time being, he wanted to hide ‘Frey Blake’, so he needed a disguise.
After pondering for a moment, Gisellan finally spoke.
“Honor Eizek should have the means. He often takes missions in foreign countries, so he has a few fake identities.
After a while, Gisellan came back with Eizek.
Gisellan must have informed him of the situation beforehand as he immediately brought up the main point.
“I have something that can help you.”
As he said that, he stretched out his hand.
In it, there was an old card which appeared to be made of bronze.
“It’s a C-rank Mercenary. The name is Kain Rixton. 26 years old and lives in a city in the far south called ‘Temigo’. It’s okay to update the rank in the Mercenary Guild whenever you like.”
“Can you tell me more about his background.”
“Of course. It would be better if you memorize everything I’m about to say.”
Eizek started talking about Kain Rixton’s personal story.
Frey paid the most attention to the appearance as he would need to make the illusion as accurate as possible.
After listening to all of the information, Frey received the Mercenary Card.
Then, after giving Eizek his sincere gratitude, he immediately began packing his luggage.
It was time to leave.
Frey opened his door and stepped out, but he was forced to stop.
The circle members had gathered in front of his house.
At the front was Fio, who was the first person to receive Frey’s teaching.
Compared to the rest, the gaze that he was staring at Frey with was particularly emotional.
He was one of Frey’s most adamant followers within the circle, and he had decided to disregard the age difference and consider him as his mentor.
This was why he was especially disappointed by the approaching separation.
“Rounder Frey, we heard that you were leaving on a long term mission…”
“That’s right, I don’t think I can come back until the next Biennial meeting.”
“The next meeting is a year and a half from now…”
“Well, if it wasn’t that long, could it still be considered a long term mission?”
“What can we do without Rounder Frey, what can we do…”
The circle members all looked at Frey with sad faces.
There were even a few members who were crying.
Frey smiled gently at their goodwill.
“You can do well without me. Honor Eizek said that he would not be taking any missions for the time being.”
“Still…”
Frey’s expression became serious.
“The Trowman Rings have completed all the preparations we need to soar. It’s up to all of you whether we can spread our wings and completely shock the world or if we become a shabby figure with no feathers. And I believe in you all.”
The circle members bowed their heads with enlightened expressions on their faces.
“We will wait.”
“Rounder Frey, I wish you good luck.”
“Please come back safely.”
“Come back soon.”
After that, Frey immediately left the village.
And for a moment, he seriously wondered if he had developed a habit of wandering.
Since he had returned, Frey had not stayed in a location for more than one year.
‘I’m sure it’ll be the same in the future.’
He would probably continue to move around unless something special happened.
After leaving the village, he found the southbound road Eizek had told him about.
Its condition made it a bit of a stretch to call it a road, but he was still able to find it.
‘He said it was a two day walk.’
He had no problem with that as there was camping equipment along with a large amount of food and water in his bag.
Frey walked at a leisure pace.
Occasionally, monsters would appear on the mountain road.
Usually, Frey would threaten them or kick them away, but for those who could not understand his warnings, he killed them.
After a while, he just used flight magic.
There were no threatening flying monsters nor people around him, so he didn’t have to worry about anyone seeing him.
Frey’s current mana capacity was so outrageous that it would not be emptied even if he used the flight magic, which had poor cost-effectiveness, all night.
Thanks to that, he was able to reach Grode within a day.
Grode wasn’t a very big city.
In fact, it was a bit strange that such a small place could have a Warp Stone. Perhaps it was its geographical location which made it necessary to give it a Warp Stone.
Although Frey had arrived at the city much faster than he expected, he still couldn’t go to Pillat right away.
The number of places available for the Warp Stone was just as small as the size of the city.
Frey found an Inn.
Then after entering the room, he stood before the mirror and began practicing changing his appearance.
He didn’t do a very good job at first.
It was just an illusion spell. However, it was so complex, that even if someone was at 8 stars, a level higher than him, they would not be able to notice.
First, he changed his hair to dull blonde.
This was the color that was most common within the Kastkau Empire.
He made his eyes dark brown and then he slightly altered the structure of his face.
The entire process took about ten minutes.
Frey looked at his face in the mirror.
Standing there was a young man with a gentle expression.
He matched the description of ‘Kain Rixton’ as provided by Eizek.
‘This is enough.’
Frey went to bed right after that and the next morning, he left the inn while the waitress stared at him with a confused gaze.
Then he headed straight to the Warp Stone to go to Pilllat.
When he arrived and was asked to provide identification, he handed out Kain’s Mercenary ID.
The guard confirmed his identity before returning the card without feeling any suspicion.
With this, there would be no way for anyone to trace his travel using a Warp Stone like the last time.
Frey’s whereabouts would have been cut off at Uthiano.
Woowoong.
“…”
Immediately after suppressing the special feeling that came with Warp Stone travel, Frey began observing his surroundings.
He had a sense of familiarity and unfamiliarity to everything around him.
‘So this is Pillat.’
It was the largest city in the east, and home to the Blake Family.
At the same time, it was the closest city to the Great Reynols Forest, east of the empire.
Frey ignored the strange nostalgia he felt and headed to the Mercenary Guild.
As it was near to the forest, there would naturally be a large number of monsters.
Although it wasn’t as high as Ispaniola, Pillat was also one of the cities with a large floating population(1) of mercenaries.
However, Frey did not feel the same tense atmosphere like the one in Ispaniola.
Pillat had incredibly strong walls, and they were not something ordinary monsters could easily destroy.
This led to the citizens having absolute confidence in their safety, so their expressions were much more relaxed.
The Mercenaries were all gathered to collect materials from the nearby forest or to hunt rare monsters to obtain precious materials rather than to subjugate the monster population.
Pillat had dozens of Mercenary Guilds.
Frey was heading to one of them with the name ‘Vulcano’. (Note: yes, ‘u’ not ‘o’)
Click.
When he opened the door, he was greeted by an obnoxiously loud noise.
This building served as a Mercenary Guild, and at the same time, it functioned as a bar, a restaurant, an inn, and even worse, a brothel.
It smelled like bad alcohol and cheap tobacco.
Although it was the middle of the day, the Mercenaries held bottles of alcohol in their hands with many more on their tables.
Several of them glanced at Frey as he entered.
“I’ve never seen this face before. Is he a rookie?”
“He’s wearing a very pretty robe. Hihihi. Maybe he’s pretending to be a Wizard.”
“No! Isn’t this proof that the status of our Vulcano has risen to such a height that even a noble Wizard would come here in person?!”
“Puhahaha!”
There weren’t many of them who actually believed that Frey could be a Wizard.
There was a higher probability that he was just an admirer who liked to follow their style.
Their reaction wasn’t surprising.
It was extremely rare for Wizards to enter the Mercenary world.
They didn’t do so unless they needed a lot of money badly.
The more prestigious the family, the less likely they would resort to doing this.
This was because even the shortest tenure as a Mercenary could become a shame that would last a lifetime.
Frey ignored them and headed to the counter.
Standing there was a young woman who did not seem to fit in with the tough atmosphere in the Mercenary Guild.
She seemed to be one of the employees.
She had a pretty face, but she was wearing a dress that showed her deep cleavage and bare thighs.
It seemed she served as eye candy for the Mercenaries.
“Hello, how may I help you?”
“I’m here to receive a mission.”
“Are you a Mercenary?”
“That’s right.”
“Show me your identification please.”
Frey handed her the Mercenary Card, however, she only read the information at the back.
“This is a card issued from Temigo in the south. Your name is Kain Rixton. Are you a C-rank Mercenary?”
“Yes.”
“I’ve confirmed your information. Please wait a moment.”
Then she rummaged through something below the counter before showing him a few flyers.
“These are the currently available missions. The more difficult ones are to the left…”
Frey shook his head.
“I’d like to escort the peddlers to the Great Reynols Forest.”
“That mission can only be taken by B-rank Mercenaries and higher.”
“Then I would like to apply for an advancement.”
“Right now?”
“Yes.”
“…okay.”
The employee looked at Frey with a strange gaze, but she could not interfere with his wishes.
On the back of every Mercenary Card was the date of issue, and it showed that this man had become a C-rank Mercenary three years ago.
It was possible to become a B-rank in three years.
“You can go to the counter in the basement and apply for an advancement. Please note that you need to pay 10 silvers as an application fee.”
Frey nodded and immediately headed to the basement.
The basement was actually quite deep.
As he walked down the staircase illuminated only by candles, the sounds from the first floor slowly began to fade away.
And once he reached the bottom, even his footsteps began to sound loud.
Tap tap.
The underground space was quite large, or it might have looked that way because there were only a few people there.
The corridor was long, and there were doors on both sides.
Frey walked down the hall.
At the end of it, there was a chair and a desk, behind which a one-eyed man sat.
The man wore an eyepatch which reminded Frey of the pirates he’d encountered back on the Cortez, but the aura that the man exuded was completely incomparable to those weak pirates.
“Did you come to take an advancement test?”
“That’s right.”
“What’s your current class and rank?”
“Wizard, C-rank.”
“I see. You know there are two ways to advance, right? Mission or demonstration. What would you like to choose?”
Eizek had already explained this to him.
Choosing Mission literally meant that he had to prove his capabilities by completing an assigned quest.
It had the advantage of allowing you to get help from others, but it could take a lot of time depending on the type and difficulty of the quest.
Demonstration meant to show your skills to the examiner assigned by the guild.
It didn’t take a lot of time, but most Mercenaries chose the first method even if it took a long time because the examiners were known for their strictness.
Frey didn’t hesitate as he didn’t need to think about it.
“Demonstration.”
“…Hmm. It’s been a while since someone chose demonstration.”
“…”
“Good. Follow me.”
Frey followed the man without a word.
The one eyed man walked down the hall that Frey came from and opened one of the doors.
A fairly large space was revealed.
That wasn’t all.
Frey also recognized the presence of several large, overlapping protective spells in this room.
In this room was another door.
The man walked through the door, and after a while, he came back, followed by another person.
This time, it was a young woman.
Like Frey, no.
Like Kain, she had dull blonde hair and wore a robe.
Frey realised immediately that she was a Wizard.
“I never thought we’d have guests so early in the morning.”
“It’s work time. Irene, act a little more respectably.”
“Yes yes, boss.”
As she said this, Irene yawned loudly.
“You said you want to advance to B-rank, right? Then shoot a spell at this wall.”
She tapped the wall beside her.
“Ah. Of course, you don’t have to worry about breaking it. These protective spells were cast by the only 5 star Wizard in our guild, so I’m sure even this muscle head beside me would have to swing a sword at full force a few times to break it.”
Frey turned to look at the one-eyed man.
“Are you an A-rank Mercenary?”
“That’s right.”
“Then if I break this wall, would I become an A-rank Mercenary?”
“Puhahaha!”
Irene let out a loud laugh.
“Right. I like your confidence. But this wall is even more resistant to magic than physical attacks. If you can break it, then I will use my name to have you recognized as an A-rank Mercenary.”
“Then I think it would be better if you stepped back a little.”
“Ahhh. Whatever you like.”
Irene shrugged and stepped back a few times.
Then she looked at Frey with her arms crossed over her chest.
“Flameball.”
“…huh?”
Wait, wasn’t that a 5 star spell?
Before Irene could open her mouth.
Boom!
“…!”
The Flameball hit the wall, and the tremendous force of the explosion forced her to close her eyes.
On the other side, the one-eyed man watched this scene with wide eyes. (Note:…do I feel bad for the pun?…a little bit…do I feel like it was worth it?…ohhhh yeah…)
The dust cloud soon subsided.
Patter.
There was a large hole in the wall.
The one-eyed man muttered in a disbelieving tone.
“…congratulations on becoming an A-rank Mercenary.”
(Note:
1. Floating population is a terminology used to describe a group of people who reside in a given population for a certain amount of time and for various reasons, but are not generally considered part of the official census count.)