89 A Journey IV (2/2)

Jealous glares of other mercenary groups would stay on Dean who was getting closer to the client, knocking him back to reality that there is a difference between a personal life and a job.

The many villages they had visited rarely had any local specialties beside some occasional spices and delicacies but that was it.

In order to still make profit, the Old Man would usually ask for any weird or special things that the villagers may have found.

They would bring out old broken things, antiques and some generally odd objects.

Some were recognizable such as rare metals that contained an unusual density or toughness proving its usefulness.

But in most cases, even if something was found to be rare, the Old Man refused to give gold to the villagers.

It was not that he was a cheapskate and wanted to scam them but it was due to bandits.

If they crossed a major deal and were able to negotiate, leaving the village with a large sum of gold, this would be a reasonable incentive for an attack.

The most reasonable thing to happen that Dean would predict went along the line of destroying the crops as a warning.

In the case it was not taken as a warning, their houses would be burnt to warn other villages; people would die or get kidnapped to be make some money; everything would be pillaged until there was nothing and the females would be raped.

This was the most common things you could do however it provoked the ire of some nearby kingdoms, so unless there was great temptation, it would otherwise be unusual.

Instead, the Old Man would offer to give any items they desired that they may be short on.

An example would be hunting bows, swords, daggers, string and things that tended to be broken once used too many times.

Otherwise his only option was to give meat they received from other villagers or rations that would come in handy for any incidents.

Dean thought the Old Man was an absolute oddball as he liked to pick up junks of trash that was offered to him before smiling and giving out some rations in exchange.

The pieces of trash didn't seem too useful while others were just broken.

Whatever the Old Man was going to do with them, Dean had no idea.

Whether he was an appraiser was something he shouldn't snoop too far into however Dean was more intrigued by the behavior of the mercenaries.

They sometimes just seemed like horny beasts as they would like to pursue village girls, clueless to the wider world and take advantage of their naivety, with or without force.

He was not a hero helping everyone with a kindred soul but just turned a blind eye.

If they want to create trouble then they should resolve trouble themselves.

Because Dean learnt that in two days, karma sucks.