89 A Journey IV (1/2)

They were slowly coming closer to what Dean was told as their final destination but he noticeably saw the Old Man become much more tense.

He acted incredibly kind and carefree when he talked to the leaders of mercenary groups however when given time to rest, he seemed full of dread.

When they were getting closer towards their destination, the Old Man was a lot more anxious and became aggressive when his given orders weren't carried out perfectly.

Most just saw him as a grumpy Old Man who woke up from the wrong side of the bed but Ellis and Alexander continued to warn Dean.

From the aggravated matter when the Old Man saw bandits, they obviously saw that it was a lot of disappointment and anger within those eyes.

This was further promoted when he yelled at the mercenaries who became showy with their fights or resorted to using wasteful actions.

Many of the mercenaries allowed their allies to do whatever they wanted as long as it wasn't against the will of the client.

However this fell short when it came to the much more popular mercenary groups.

They think their name must have reached the entire world with how they lifted their heads high and puff their chests out.

Dean couldn't help but hold them in contempt for trying to purposely cause a rift between the other groups.

It was to make sure that no new talents could bloom into successful groups and if there were any interesting youths, they were tempted to pluck them for their own taking.

Such selfish behavior will be sure to bite them on the back when push comes to shove if their group is built around an unstable base.

They reached many villages in order to trade for local goods that could be transported to the outside world for a much higher cost.

If the source was managed just right, the price could reach as high as 10 times the original.

Dean always enjoyed with the conversation with the client as he would like to brag the success he was able to bring as well as how loving his children were.

It was odd to hear from an Old Man reaching the end of his life that one could have high optimism for the future of life.

He appreciated and wanted to believe in a happy future but there was one part of him telling that it was best to give up such a future.

When the turn came to him on how to respond to the Old Man's rambling, it was difficult to continue it as he wasn't able to see eye to eye.

The method he managed to use in order to not make the conversation sour was to change to a different topic.

Being the kind Old Man he was, it was obvious that he was able to smoothly transition the subject when there was hesitation in Dean's eyes.

There was never an outright moment where Dean would spill his difficulties in believing such optimism while the Old Man didn't want to ruin a good mood.

Their conversations always ended on a good note but there was always this reminder in Dean's head, do not get attached.