Chapter 270 - Desperate recruitment

After so many weeks, Chan and his crew had a warm and comfortable good night sleep. It has become a hassle, and even though Chan has grown used to it a little bit it still was rough. Especially the last two weeks as they went through this blistering cold.

Getting the Chance to give this Kingdom a closer look, he wasn't so pleased with what he saw. This place looks even poorer than Gaster Kingdom before King Michael started bringing in profit.

There are so many houses destroyed by the weather, with no one to care after them since they are practically abandoned now with its residents dead at Maleemia. Sad really, and yet so many elderlies here are waiting for their sons to return. Heck, the ill.u.s.tratian Alliance is so desperate that they took mothers along with kids or teenage girls who are over 16. This is highly unusual for the ill.u.s.tratian Alliance, but the only discrimination they made were elderlies.

This place looks like a ghost town, even the walls look like they are a Blizzard away from crumbling. He barely even saw any Guards, heck a Blue Eagle can invade this place if he or she wanted too! Heck, Gaster Kingdom can just send 30 Guards here and they can obtain this Kingdom for their own.

But would it be worth it? There is no income, there is no support. Since there are elderlies here only, the ill.u.s.tratian Alliance won't likely show their support to this town again now that they have gotten 250 useful people(War-wise) out of here.

These elderlies are left for dead, no merchant would risk it enough to come all the way up here just to donate and no elderly has the capability to make a journey towards Meridionali Ignis to buy or ask for food and support.

The Grand King of Meridionali Ignis was damn well aware of such a result, the elderlies here are the sacrifice for war. The elderlies here are left to starve. They are lucky enough if they don't get raided by low rank bandits for what little gold or resources they have!

Rowan proved quite useful when it came showing them where the Giant ill.u.s.tratio takes shelter at, he even volunteered to guide them all the way there. No one else would go that far when it comes to help regardless of race, when asked to just tell them by word where to reach their aimed for location. He just shook his head and stated, "I have to take you there, or otherwise you can never find him."

It is good that he didn't ask any deeper questions like, "Why do you need to find that beast?" How would Chan explain himself? He can't say that the Grand King send him there to cut off the Giant ill.u.s.tratio's toe for a staff that will give him freezing powers, who would show understanding for such a task?

No no he can never explain it and sound sane at the same time, as much as the crew is concerned the Grand King just needs the toe, they don't know for what he needs it for nor did they know how to figure it out, they are being paid to not ask questions and Bear Claw just accepted to join, the lack of questions here made Chan's life easier.

You might ask how 14 people slept in a mediveal house, well it isn't so uncommon come to think of it, families are used to sleeping all in the same room especially when its colder, here it is always cold so you can say they used to sleep all in one room together year around, hence the word "used to".

The men used their sleeping bags to sleep on the floor, Chan was given the opportunity to sleep closest to the Fire partially because of his status but also because the crew has heard of his fate with cold. Bear Claw slept along with the men, thankfully no one tried anything stupid as for Rowan he just went and slept in another room.

Although most in one place this is the most comfortable good night sleep they got ever since they started this journey, Chan of which became the most thankful. In the morning he even tried to thank Rowan for his assistance with a nice sack carrying 100 Gold Coins.

I mean, Rowan accepted them in their house and even gave the horses a warm place to sleep. There are tens of people in this town who would do the same for a fellow ill.u.s.tratian traveller in need but the deed that Rowan did is still there, Chan felt the most grateful and although he won't spend another night here he still wanted to reward Rowan.

Odd enough, Rowan refused it with all of his guts. After several times of simply saying, "No no no no no!" To convince Chan towards the other way around he stated. "I am not in need of Gold, a man can have everything if he works hard enough aye?"

The moment he said that, the best source of profit anyone could think of here at the edge of the Continent was related towards a Horse Business. Generally Horses are worth several or even over ten typical salaries, here where Shire Horses run wild scrapping for food, they can be vulnerable towards taming.

One could make a life Fortune with 50 Shire Horses, if Rowan worked on such a business for a span of 5 years he would probably tame more than 50 Shire Horses. It is a risky job indeed considering that these Horses are 2 meters tall to the shoulder, but it sure pays well!

Kingdoms from the ill.u.s.tratian motherland who are the most superior in this Continent when it comes to the economy, would pay even more for Shire Horses. Every domain would want a Horse who can pull 2 tons!

Such action coming from Rowan got Chan confused wildly. Until now he never found an ill.u.s.tratio or Ignite for that matter who couldn't get bribed by Gold, with salaries in Occidentis Ignis spanning from 100-200 Gold Coins at average, one could bribe most with 20 Gold Coins.

But to make it even more confusing, Chan was in no way trying to bribe Rowan, he just genuinely tried to reward him. He refused the gold and offered to lead them right towards the Giant ill.u.s.tratio, crazy indeed or at least far out of the ordinary.

As they were on the road, with the Horses left on the barn since they don't require them to reach the Giant ill.u.s.tratio. To kill some time, Chan decided to ask Rowan about how exactly he made his income enough to refuse a reward.

"Um so... what did you work before retirement?" Deciding to be direct about this topic, he afterwards added. "No offense to you and your help but I never saw anyone refuse a reward before."

"Let's just say that I did everything." Answered Rowan casually as his heavy boots continued to stomp down on the snow, feeling that he left everyone confused he continued. "For 5 years I was a merchant, that at least can be considered my best source of income. Before that I worked several low pay jobs. Shop keeping, Stable cleaning and I even worked as a Lumberjack!"

"You weren't kidding when you said that you did everything." Spoke out one Guard from the background, he became indeed impressed by this hard working man.

Bold enough, the shortest man of this little crew dared to open a possibly sensitive topic work related. "What about your boys, were they Guards?"

Rowan flinched a little bit, the question came a bit suddenly but indeed he loved talking about his boys. "No no, they too just worked on petty tasks. When they became 16 they started working and we managed to save up a lot more gold."

"So that's when you became merchants?" Asked Chan, as Bear Claw and the rest were listening with enough attention in the background.

"Well not instantly, it took us a few years until we could pile up enough Gold to take risks on such a business." Rubbing his hands to fight the cold away, and holding the axe Lumberjacks use between his pits. He added, "We headed to Meridionali Ignis, that's where a fortune can be made."

Grabbing his axe near the Iron after and flinging it back and forth as he walked down hill along with the rest, he continued. "In just 5 years we made 10 fold more than we did doing all those jobs, I have enough to feed half the Kingdom for years."

Seeing that no one is interrupting him and are further awaiting for his word, he firmly added. "But that wealth can only fill the bottom gap here." At the end of his sentence he lightly patted his chest, "I haven't heard a word from my boys. I feel that they didn't survive the vicious war!"