Ch 30

Those who appeared to be merchants felt something was off and hurriedly hid behind the procession, the ones who calmed the horses put up their guards and looked around warily when they found Caron.

"Is it because of you that the horses are excited?" a young-faced boy lying on the lead wagon raised himself to his feet and asked Caron.

Caron was intrigued when the boy stepped up and spoke to him first, instead of an adult. Caron lacked common sense, but he at least knew that when there was a disturbance, the one to take charge was usually the leader of the group or the eldest person.

"Ah, sorry about that. It seems my warming up scared them a bit." Caron said, smiling and scratching the back of his head awkwardly.

The men with swords surrounding the wagons looked at the boy. The boy beckoned with his hand in a stirring motion, and the men put the sword back into their sheaths one after another. Caron realized the boy was of a higher status than he had thought.

"You must be confident in your skills considering you’re traveling alone in such a dangerous area."

The area near Olympus Forest, where there were animals even more dangerous than monsters, was a danger zone where even skilled hunters were reluctant to approach.

Caron shrugged. "Well, I'm an adult."

For the Crow tribe, being an adult meant having no problem walking around the forest alone. Therefore, the Crow tribe’s coming-of-age ceremony was to hunt a dangerous monster alone, to prove that you could protect your own safety.

The boy looked at Caron curiously. "Where are you going?"

“Hmm, I don't know."

Why was he asking about a destination suddenly? Caron looked over the boy's party for a moment with suspicion. There was no one there who could threaten him. Still, he answered, thinking that he should avoid being careless since this was his first time outside the forest.

"Let's say I’m going to a big city for now."

He had the freedom he wanted, but he didn’t have any immediate goals. So far, he was thinking about doing a job as a mercenary who could freely roam around and fight. The boy jumped off the wagon and approached slowly.

"Then do you want to go to the nearest city with me?"

The boy's party looked more surprised than Caron.

"Leader! What are you doing all of a sudden...”

"It's okay. You know I have a great eye for people."

When the boy smiled and spoke, the men shut their mouths. Even though he was young, he seemed to have quite a high reputation.

"Do you know the way to the city? Judging by the size of your bag, it doesn’t seem like you have enough food to make it to a nearby village."

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Caron grinned. "I can hunt along the way for food, but I don't know the road. You’re just now meeting me for the first time, why ask that I accompany you when it makes your colleagues nervous?"

His instincts told him it was okay to follow the boy, but he asked just to confirm.

"Why… because you look strong. We're escorting the merchants right now, so wouldn't it be safer with you defending them?"

Based on Caron’s instincts, the boy was not lying, but he was not telling the whole truth either.

"Hmm~! That makes sense. If it’s just my strength you want though, you already have enough here. There is no need to add on anyone else.”

The boy's strength seemed extraordinary compared to his company. It almost seemed as though the others were just there to fill the head count.

"So what's the real reason?" Caron asked.

The boy scratched the back of his head as if he was embarrassed.

"Well, there are several reasons, but… I just thought it would be fun to go with you."

It was nonsense, but Caron's instincts were telling him that this ridiculous statement was true.

"Puhahaha! You're quite a weirdo, aren't you? All right, let's go together."

The boy was rather flustered when Caron easily agreed to the proposal. Even when the boy thought about it more himself, he thought it was a ridiculous reason, too.

"Huh? You believe me?" asked the boy.

"Yeah. I have an eye for things like this." Caron replied.

It was instinct, to be exact.

The boy laughed cheerfully. “Ahahaha! You're just as much of a weirdo as I am!"

The boy who suddenly authorized Caron to join them was strange, but it was also strange that Caron had accepted the invitation so easily, from a group whose identity was unknown to him.

"I like it. I'm Benjamin Farhan, a commander of the Dragon Fang Mercenaries."

"Caron Blade. I love freedom more than anything else."

Benjamin and Caron shook hands. It was the first meeting of two knights, who would later be called Tristan and Mordred.

* * *

Caron looked in awe at Benjamin, who skillfully lied to the manager of the merchants.

"Hmm, you ran into a friend from your hometown here?" asked Benjamin.

As the shaggy bearded merchant pondered Benjamin's words, Ark naturally said, "Yes. This friend has loved traveling since he was young, so he was always going on trips. Still, who would have thought we would meet in a place like this."

"Still, what about the company...”

"Aigo! Don't worry. His skills are very good. He'll be even more helpful than me in times of need."

"Well..." the merchant hesitated.

Benjamin spoke up in a cool, casual tone, "Wouldn’t it be a great benefit to you if you were able to hire a strong mercenary for only the cost of their meals? This friend didn't get a mercenary plate, but if he did, it’d at least be a gold card. Do you know how much it costs to hire a gold plate mercenary?"

"That's true… Well, I'll believe it since Dragon Fang’s 'Ghost' is the one saying it."

‘Ghost’ was Benjamin's nickname. Often, the mercenary industry gave nicknames to those who survived various battles. Having a nickname meant strength, so people often wanted to work with a nicknamed mercenary and avoided meeting them as enemies.

"Ehew! Anyways, you can just trust me." said Benjamin.

Caron thought Benjamin was doing a poor job of introducing him, but he still cooperated, smiling and nodding along with Benjamin’s words. After all, they had agreed to provide accommodation and food to an outsider who they didn’t even know. As the horses pulling the wagon calmed down, they got on their way again. The Dragon Fang Mercenaries took up their positions and escorted the merchants onwards. Benjamin climbed up the wagon with light movements as if it were his seat, and Caron followed Benjamin and laid next to him.

"You must be pretty high up in the mercenary group, considering how the merchant party is willing to listen to you," said Caron curiously.

Benjamin smiled bitterly. "I was high up. There are more than a hundred mercenaries in the Dragon Fang Mercenaries, and I used to be one of the five commanders."

Caron did not know, but the Dragon Fang Mercenaries were so famous that everyone in the mercenary industry knew of them. The head of the Dragon Fang Mercenaries was even called the mercenary king.

"You used to be?"

"Oh, this is my last commission. I'm going to retire from being a mercenary after this."

"Really? You look my age, it seems like you’re retiring early."

Benjamin chuckled at Caron's casual response. It might have been different for a group of people who just gathered from time to time, but in the case of a large mercenary group, it was not easy to retire unless they got old and lost their skills or were severely injured. In particular, those who were talented enough to be nicknamed at a young age like Benjamin wouldn’t be allowed to leave easily.

"It’s because I'm a bit of a fast guy. There are other things I want to do, and since I have been on the battlefield for more than two years since I was fifteen, I’ve already done a lot."

"Really? When I read about being a mercenary in a book, I thought it would be fun... If there's something you want to do more than that, it'll be more fun, right? What do you want to do?"

Caron was curious. He wanted to do whatever it was that was more interesting than being a mercenary.

Benjamin answered the question proudly. "I’m going to be a knight."

"A knight?"

“Yea, a knight. It's cool! Riding a horse! Saving a beautiful princess from the enemy! They are at least treated much better than hunters and mercenaries, and they have charm."

"Ohhh~! Charm! Charm is good."

Caron nodded and recalled the book he had read. In the book, the knight defeated the evil giant and dragon and rescued the princess. His older brother Helios had said that fairy tales were different from reality, so he had just moved on, but based on Benjamin's words, it didn’t seem to be completely false. Caron now thought that being a knight might be better than being a mercenary.

"Then should I become a knight too?" said Caron naively.

Benjamin put his arms around Caron’s shoulders freely, as though they were old friends, and shouted, "Good! The door to being a knight is open to everyone!"

When Benjamin said this, the people around him began to laugh at me. Benjamin was often insulted by people saying a hillbilly hunter shouldn’t get off trying to become a knight. Therefore, he was slightly moved by Caron's open acceptance of his dream.

"But how do you become a knight?" Caron asked.

Benjamin smiled lightly. "There are many ways to simply become a knight, but I want to be a Knight of the Round Table under the Holy King. There is an entrance exam in the Holy Land Percival in the southern province. If you pass the exam, you can become a knight."

Caron smacked his lips, “Really? There must be a lot of great people if it's directly under the Holy King, right?"

"Of course! This entrance exam will bring together some of the strongest people from all over the country."

The more Caron listened, the more interesting he thought it would be. His heart trembled with excitement as he wondered about the skills of the warriors outside the forest.

"You must be one of those strong people, right?” Caron asked jokingly.

Benjamin nodded, "Of course."

Benjamin's hands were full of calluses. Caron noticed that the calluses of the index and middle fingers were more prominent than normal for a sword-user, so he determined that Benjamin mainly used a bow. He'd only know after experiencing it in person, but Caron thought that even if he could win easily against Benjamin in close combat, it wouldn't be so easy in a long-distance battle. Caron smiled broadly. "Okay! I've decided. I’ll be a knight, too.”

Within two hours of leaving his hometown forest, Caron decided his career path. It was too spontaneous, but it didn't matter. If it wasn't fun, he could just quit and leave, and most importantly, he liked that he was deciding his own future. Caron and Benjamin continued their conversation as if they were old friends who hadn’t met for a long time. After chatting and traveling for hours, Caron suddenly stopped and fiddled with his sword.

"What's wrong?" Benjamin asked.

Caron smiled lightly, "Each individual one is nothing, but there are quite a few of them."

As soon as Caron finished speaking, Benjamin sensed it as well.

"Tch, I knew that that sly leader was letting me retire too easily."

They both detected a band of more than a hundred bandits. There was no way that such a large band of bandits would suddenly have appeared for no reason, so there seemed to be something important hidden on the way up that the mercenaries did not know about. Benjamin took out an emergency whistle and looked at Caron.

"Sorry about this. I asked you to accompany me, but got you caught up in this kind of trouble."

Caron laughed cheerfully, "Ahahaha! It's okay! This is the dream!"

"Kuku! That's right."

Benjamin stopped the procession and blew into the whistle.

Ppuuuuuu-!

As soon as the procession stopped, the unknown band of bandits seemed to realize they had been discovered and began to shout. As the sound of the whistle rang out, they rushed towards the procession from the faraway foot of the mountain.