Chapter 26 Mercenaries

"What? What are you talking about?"

Andrew seemed to have grabbed a life-saving straw, threw the flag into my arms and walked over. Seeing a fully armed strong man rushing towards them, the two people who were discussing were frightened and thought Andrew was going to fight.

I quickly moved to the side holding the flag, and saw Andrew put one hand on someone's shoulder, as if he was asking a million questions, with a momentum of breaking the casserole to get to the bottom of it. Not long after, Andrew came back to me with a satisfied look on his face and said, "Luga, we finally have a chance!"

"Chance? What chance?"

"Hey, I'm returning to the battlefield as a mercenary!"

Andrew's excitement was clearly visible on his face. He was so impatient that he would not hesitate to go to the battlefield! "Wait for me. There will be a recruiting post for recorders in a little while. We can sign up and gather at the square in the city tomorrow morning. We will definitely meet Marshal Aetius then!"

"Oh, Andrew, you have forgotten the pain now that the wound has healed."

Forgive me for saying this, because when I heard about going to the battlefield, I thought of the horrible scar on my stomach when I woke up that day and the charcoal used to stop the bleeding. I really don't understand why Dr. Bella always burned the iron red? For war, I really have a fear engraved on my bones. Losing arms and legs is fine, but if I die on the battlefield, Tenaia, ah. "Hey, hey, hey! Quiet, quiet!"

There was a shout not far away. Although the voice was not loud, as soon as the voice fell, all the music stopped, and the people who were enjoying themselves also stopped talking. In an instant, the entire first floor of the inn was silent, and everyone's eyes were focused on a man in the crowd who was dressed more gorgeously. The man cleared his throat and said loudly: "I am the civil servant Marco. I am here to hire warriors on the orders of His Excellency Flavius ​​Aetius. Now, the ignorant and stupid Burgundians are wantonly encroaching on Roman territory in the north, which is unbearable for us loyal Romans. Come on, warriors, for the empire, for Rome! Get up and fight!"

"Fight for the Empire!!!"

Andrew stood up and yelled excitedly, but everyone around him responded, "Sit down quickly." I pulled him back to avoid causing unnecessary embarrassment.

Marco raised his fist and roared until his cheeks flushed. His fearless spirit and passionate speech should have won unanimous cheers from the people, but tragically, the audience was completely silent, and everyone looked at him as if they were looking at that person again. In fact, he did not infect the audience, and it was not his fault, because most of the people in the audience were Germans, Vandals, and Iberians from Spain. Few of them were real Romans. Similarly, their purpose of coming here was not to cheer "Long live Rome". Obviously, this well-dressed guy did not grasp the key to the problem.

Perhaps he was embarrassed, so Marco couldn't help but put down his raised hand. After thinking for a moment, he raised his head and shouted loudly: "Any warrior who registers with me today will receive 75 denarii at the venue tomorrow!"

"Long live Rome!!!"

A cheer instantly brought the whole hotel to a boil. Everyone, almost everyone, stood up and waved their hands to cheer loudly for the wooden wine glasses. The silent musicians quickly picked up their instruments and played equally cheerful music in coordination with the joyful crowd. More strong men even abandoned the girls they were still holding in their arms in order to earn Marco's autograph. This was also the purpose of their coming here, to become mercenaries, earn a lot of dinars, and play with women from all over the empire. It didn't matter if they died, because they didn't plan to grow old anyway.

"These damn barbarians!"

Andrew slammed his right fist on the table, but his angry insults were soon drowned out by the cheers, and no one listened to him vent his inner dissatisfaction.

"They can indulge themselves under the protection of the empire, but when it comes to serving the empire and the legion, they are completely silent. These damned things are parasites. Only money and women can excite them!"

"Don't be angry, Andrew." I patted his shoulder and said to him, "Although the profession of mercenary is not glorious, think about it, isn't Mark, who was just encouraging people, here to recruit mercenaries? Andrew, let me ask you, do you think there is hope for the two of us to join the legion as soldiers now?"

Andrew was silent for a long time before he shook his head helplessly and replied, "It's impossible. The flag in our hands is too big."

"Well," I pointed at Mark who was standing not far away, and then said to Andrew, "Now this is an opportunity, and everyone can do it. It's also about serving the country. The road to regular military service has been blocked, so why don't you consider this?"

"Lujia, do you mean to join the mercenary army and fight with these money-hungry barbarians?"

Andrew was still very resistant, pointing at the crowded crowd in front of him with a look of disgust. But this couldn't change anything, at least no one would be ashamed of a job that could earn enough money to support it, even if it was labeled as unpatriotic.

"Come on, Andrew, think about it on the bright side. Not every mercenary is unpatriotic, right? At least there's you and me."

After my repeated dissuasion, Andrew finally compromised. He sighed and said slowly, "Well, for God's sake, I'm not going there for the money."

I didn't have the time to listen to Andrew's self-consolation. I took advantage of the crowd to disperse and took Andrew to get closer. I pushed aside the people in front and finally saw Marco in the crowd. He was struggling to write down each person's name on the parchment with his reed pipe. He didn't notice me for a long time when I stood in front of him.

"May I have your name?"

Marco asked without looking up.

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"Orius Luca, the one next to me is, what's your last name? Andrew."

"Olius."

"Damn, so you believe in Orius too. Then please record it, Orius Andrew."

"Orius." Mark repeated and looked up at us, his eyes full of surprise. "I thought the mercenaries were all barbarians, but I didn't expect there were Romans. Yes, there are few Romans who are willing to serve their country like you, even among the mercenaries. There are even fewer who are fully armed like you. I swear that as long as you two can survive, you will have a bright future."

"Yes, there are tall and strong Germans everywhere. Who would be bored enough to join the army?" I said with a smile.

Marco just laughed dryly and didn't answer. He wrote our names stroke by stroke with a pen and reminded us: "Don't forget, come to the meeting place in the city tomorrow morning and bring your weapons. The governor will give you anything you need."

After such a simple registration, Andrew and I became mercenaries of the empire. There was no assessment or training, and we only had to report on time.

(End of this chapter)