The next day.
The lord faced the captain of the Hound mercenaries and his subordinates who had come to see him.
Of course, the lord was not alone in receiving them.
Behind the lord, facing the mercenary captain, were the overseers who could be considered the leaders of the retainers, and several retainers were also present.
'Judging by their expressions, they seem to have realized something. That this is not a typical subjugation.'
While he had requested the orc subjugation, the orc shaman was a separate issue.
Thus, Lord Chester, pretending to be clueless, broke the ice.
"What brings you here? I thought you had already started the orc subjugation?"
As he turned his gaze to the Hound mercenaries, their expressions were utterly grim.
"I've already paid half of the fee in advance. What seems to be the problem?"
The lord brazenly acted as if nothing was wrong, which angered the visiting mercenary captain, though he decided to try and resolve it through conversation first.
"An unexpected problem arose during the mission."
“An unexpected problem, you say?”
The lord, scratching his chin, tilted his head in confusion.
“What kind of problem?”
“There’s something you haven’t told us.”
“You mean I haven’t told you?”
The lord, showing his palms, looked around at the attendants with a bewildered expression.
“Did I ever withhold any information?”
Since the attendants were all in cahoots with him, none of them intended to make any groundless remarks.
Just like the lord, the attendants feigned ignorance and responded to his question.
“Was there such a thing?”
“We are not sure either.”
The lord, after gauging their reactions, asked the mercenary captain.
“The number of orcs we planned to subdue was larger than we thought?”
“That’s not it. The number of orcs is irrelevant to us.”
“Is that so? Siron.”
The lord called for the overseer, the leader of the attendants.
Overseer Siron Mark.
He was the leader of all the attendants overseeing the security of the territory.
“Yes, my lord.”
“Did you withhold anything from me regarding the orc subjugation matter?”
“There was nothing of the sort. I report even the most trivial matters in the territory to you, my lord.”
The Overseer gave his attention to the mercenary captain.
"If it's the renowned Hound Mercenaries, they should be able to handle a group of orcs. There surely won't be any problem, right?"
His words continued.
"It's somewhat unexpected that the Hound Mercenaries would come all the way here just because of some mere orcs. I really can't grasp why you've come."
As expected, the mercenary captain, Karl, started to feel uneasy as they began to evade the question, but he tried to suppress his discomfort.
There was nothing good to gain from falling out with the lord of this place.
"There was an orc shaman. We have confirmed this ourselves."
"An orc shaman?"
As if they finally understood the reason for his visit, the lord and his subordinates began to pour out the reactions the mercenary captain wanted.
"There was an orc shaman? If it's a shaman, wouldn't that be like a wizard among the orcs?"
"Yes, exactly. If it's a shaman, then it's definitely a problem."
The mercenary captain, his face slightly contorted in disgust at their blatantly poor acting, directly asked the lord.
"So, I had to come back because the price wasn't right."
"The price wasn't right?"
"Yes, of course, it wasn't. What we were asked to do was to subdue orcs, but there was no mention of an orc shaman."
"Hmm..."
Any mercenary group, without a wizard, knew that subduing orcs including an orc shaman was too much, and the lord was no exception.
However, the lord had called them, believing they could handle the situation within a reasonable scope.
If the request had initially been to subdue orcs including a shaman, a force suitable for that task would have come, and the amount they would have asked for would have been quite significant.
"This puts us in a difficult position. We had no idea there would be an orc shaman. Isn't that right, Shiron?"
"Yes, I had no idea either that the orc group we thought was simple would include a shaman."
"Yes, we were completely unaware."
Mercenary leader Karl replied with a grim expression.
"It's good that you know now, at least."
"Is it that your strength alone is not enough?"
Shameless, just shameless.
Did he really not know?
"Since there is an Orc Shaman, it's too much for just our strength. As you know, a shaman is an entity that can't be meddled with in normal realms, so we need a wizard to counter it. Also, we would like the lord to take care of the additional costs involved."
At this, the lord's expression changed.
"What if I refuse?"
"Then we'll have to consider this suppression mission as non-existent."
"What about the penalty for breaching the contract?"
Now the expression of the mercenary captain turned grim.
"Do you intend to go to war with us, my lord? If you keep asking for things beyond common sense, we'll have no choice but to respond accordingly."
The lord burst into laughter as if to show off.
"Ha-ha, it's just a joke. Why do you look at me as if you're going to kill someone over a joke? If someone else saw us, they'd think we have a very bad relationship. Isn't that right, Karl?"
"We're not the kind of people who particularly like jokes."
The lord's face lost its smile in an instant.
"Alright. Enough with the jokes. As you said, I'll take care of the additional costs for hiring a wizard. So, don't worry too much and just focus on completing your given task. The estate is in chaos because of the orcs lately. It's giving me a headache."
Although Karl was indeed annoyed, if the lord was going to pay the extra cost for hiring a wizard, there was no need for him to argue any further.
'It seems he was expecting this reaction. If things were normal, the cost would have been higher, after all.'
"That's settled then."
The lord took out a pen and a promissory note that seemed to be prepared in advance and placed them on the table.
"Alright, how much do you think you'll need? You must have a figure in mind."
Looking at the piece of paper the lord had taken out, Karl frowned again.
"Lord, you aren't planning to pay with that, are you?"
The lord, who had stopped writing, looked at Karl and retorted.
"What's the problem? I don't have cash on hand, so I'm offering a promissory note instead."
"The wizard requires an upfront payment. They prefer tangible gold coins over those useless scraps of paper guaranteed by the lord."
The lord, who had attempted to make do with a promissory note, showed a slightly bitter expression.
"I’m not going to ruin things here, and the tax revenue is steadily collected. What exactly is the problem? With this note I've written, you can collect gold coins from me anytime, anywhere."
The lord asked again.
"Or do you think my family and this land will someday be ruined?"
"Well, who knows if there's a major war around here? What if you, the lord, abandon the rights to this land and flee? Then the promissory notes you've written would become worthless scraps. Who else would guarantee them? Did the royal family promise to back them? Maybe then a wizard would accept it."
"That’s... not the case."
"Then it will be difficult. A wizard will never trust the lord’s promissory note."
It was bitter, but the lord knew all too well that the promissory notes he had issued were not being well received.
The people from neighboring estates or merchants within his own estate readily accepted the promissory notes he issued, but it was different for outsiders who did not trust him or his estate.
They preferred gold coins, which could be used anywhere immediately, over promissory notes that might become mere scraps of paper.
"What should I do then? The situation in the estate isn't very good these days. If I had more gold coins, I would have offered them."
At this moment, for some reason he couldn't quite understand, Karl recalled the boy from the bank, whom he had met before.
"Then you should borrow gold coins."
