Chapter 9
The Mercenary Guild was already bustling, but Arnold's arrival made it even more lively.
The boy had a warm and harmless smile on his face, and his attitude did not change because of other people's indifference. He treated everyone with such sincerity.
So the mercenaries quickly accepted Arnold and even asked him if he wanted to join the Mercenary Guild.
Arnold scratched the back of his head and said embarrassedly, "The president said that next month is the day the church will come to select magicians, and he wants me to give it a try."
Everyone was surprised when he said this.
"Haven't you taken the test before?"
“Arnold, it might be a bit of a disadvantage for you to get tested at your age.”
"Don't be afraid, Arnold. Some people become magic apprentices in their teens and die as magic apprentices. I believe in you!"
There was a shady spot in front of the Mercenary Guild, where these mercenaries, who had no work to do, gathered and talked.
Arnold looked up and saw Veris walking from the direction of the mayor's house. His eyes lit up and he immediately called out.
The other mercenaries turned around and called out to Veris, "Hey! Veris, are you finally going to write a Warcraft story?!"
Veris's stiff expression was fleeting; he quickly regained his usual lazy demeanor and walked closer before saying, "I'll go find the president. You guys continue."
The mercenaries were somewhat disappointed. One of them remembered Arnold's solo fight against the magical beasts and asked, "Arnold is amazing. He killed several magical beasts by himself. Do you want to ask him about what happened that night?"
Veris squinted at Arnold, who stood among a group of mercenaries. Arnold appeared somewhat thin, and his face clearly showed tension and anticipation.
However, he soon received a disappointing answer.
"No need, I'll just ask the president." Veris yawned. Such a big matter naturally required a lot of emphasis on how timely the church's pastor had arrived.
That way I can ask that priest kid for more money again.
He spread the church's good reputation, and the pastor always gave him extra money, equivalent to three or four days' wages.
Although the Mercenary Guild is located at the entrance of Albion, it is quite large, with buildings for accommodation, armories for storing weapons, detached buildings for storing spoils of war, as well as kitchens, offices, entertainment halls, and so on.
Young, unmarried mercenaries usually live in the Mercenary Guild, while married mercenaries sometimes go home, leaving some rooms in the Mercenary Guild often empty.
Veris found the president of the Mercenary Guild in the office on the first floor.
He was a few years younger than the vice president, but in a sense, he was someone Veris had watched grow up.
The president was very polite to Veris and guessed the purpose of his trip.
But unlike before, he got up and closed the door tightly again.
Veris raised an eyebrow, sat down in his usual chair, and said, "Have you made any other discoveries, President Nelson?"
Nelson sat back down in his previous spot, his face serious: "That boy named Arnold probably has something on him that attracts magical beasts."
"Oh?" Veris asked, as if hearing this for the first time, a look of interest on his face, and he leaned forward slightly. "Why do you say that?"
He didn't expect Nelson to find out so quickly.
While everyone's attention was drawn to Arnold's feat of taking on a monster single-handedly.
Nelson spoke with a serious expression about his discovery: "Most third-tier magical beasts are not intelligent. They will swarm around humans when they see them, and otherwise they will obey the orders of higher-tier magical beasts. However, there was only one fifth-tier magical beast present at the time, and it was eliminated before the battle even started. In other words, this was a group of unorganized beasts."
"But I found that after the melee started, everyone cut off the battlefield and blocked the advance of many monsters, but there were still many monsters desperately trying to get closer to Arnold."
Veris listened thoughtfully and then said, "If that's the case, your guess isn't unreasonable. But you must understand that wronging an innocent person is far more terrible than killing ten thousand villains."
He looked at Nelson and smiled, but his words were ambiguous.
Nelson had obviously considered this as well. He hesitated for a moment, but continued, "The priests who came to help came from Amberley. They said the monsters were advancing along a path, and that path wasn't the main road the villagers usually took. There was only one person's footprint on it."
"But I've been so busy these days that I can't go see it in person, and I can't ask anyone else to help."
Upon hearing this, Veris guessed that it was the apothecary's doing. He asked, "Where did those footprints go before disappearing?"
"When they were about five miles outside Albion, the monsters took to the main road."
Nelson frowned: "Tomorrow we're going to take these magical beasts to Mercury to sell. I'll compare them then to see if they're Arnold's footprints."
Veris turned his head and glanced at the window, where the curtains were drawn. Nelson assumed he was worried about someone eavesdropping and explained, "Don't worry, this room is very safe."
"President, it's going to rain tonight, so your plans are probably going to fall through," Veris said, turning his head back and smiling.
Nelson's expression changed slightly. He did not question the truthfulness of Veris's words, but was torn between whether to go and check before the rain started. However, as the president of the Mercenary Guild, he had many eyes on him, and if he left Albion alone, it would definitely attract the attention of others.
He suspected that the monsters had come with Arnold, but he didn't want to alert them.
Veris leaned back and said lazily, "Alright, alright, I'll go for you. Anyway, I'm going out to gather material later. Five miles... that's quite a distance. Just have someone keep an eye on Arnold's whereabouts."
Nelson breathed a sigh of relief. As a member of Albion, he had a responsibility to protect everyone's safety, but he would never say anything without evidence.
The mention of it to Veris was probably out of some kind of admiration.
Veris had been in Albion since he was a child. Over the years, the bard's appearance had remained unchanged. He looked somewhat cold, but he was actually a kind person. Nelson trusted his intuition, and Veris always had a kind of convincing magic about him.
There are very few people in Albion who actually interact with Veris; you could count them on one hand. Nelson only became acquainted with Veris after he became the president of the Mercenary Guild.
It was only after spending so many years with him that he vaguely realized that the reason he couldn't help but yearn for Veris's chanting in the tavern back then, and believed it to be true when he was a child, was probably related to the poet's peculiar temperament.
In short, Veris may look thin and weak, unlike the burly mercenaries, but he is very reliable and insightful. Nelson often felt that someone like Veris shouldn't be in a remote town like Albion.
When Veris left a few years ago, he thought the poet would never return.
Having received Veris's promise, Nelson relaxed and recounted to the poet the details of their battle with the monster that night.
Like the mercenaries outside, Nelson, though suspicious of Arnold, also admired his ability to take on monsters at such a young age, and curiously asked Veris who the protagonist would be this time.
Veris spread the newly bought paper on the table, and beautiful characters appeared under the quill pen. Hearing this, he said without looking up, "The main character? Of course, it's everyone. This is not his achievement alone. But it's okay to write a separate paragraph for him. After all, the night is so long. If you don't fill it with something, the time will be hard to pass."
"Ah... the pastors also need to write. Go find George in a few days and give him that part to take to the church. You can get some money that way."
The poet bent down and quickly jotted down the details Nelson mentioned, muttering to himself.
He moved quickly. While Nelson was still thinking about Arnold, Veris put down his pen, stretched, and said, "It's about time. I'll leave now. You can keep the paper; the ink won't dry that quickly. I should be back by evening."
The young man stood up, skillfully picked up the paper, placed it on the table in the corner of Nelson's office, and then took his leave.
Stepping out of the room, the sun was no longer so intense. Nelson's office was located further inside. As Veris walked out, he slowed his pace and finally stopped at a corner near the foyer.
He glanced sideways, looking towards the corner, and smiled.
“You heard everything.”
As a bard, his voice was magnificent. With each slow, deliberate word, the passageway fell silent, and the sound of the wind outside could be heard almost clearly... including the tense breathing of the figure standing deep in the corner.
A note from the author:
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