137 – Into the canyon
The man who identified himself as a merchant said calmly, as if feeling the tension in our gaze.
“Honey, I know what you’re thinking, but we’re not robbers or anything like that. They are merchants who officially belong to the Merchant Guild.”
As he said that, Prianian approached him and asked.
“Are you the head of the Ascend, by any chance?”
“No. Miss. Our captain is over there.”
In an instant, the merchant raised his voice and pointed towards the light beyond the bushes.
“If we were bandits or other people like that, we would have put out all the fires. So, I’d like you to talk to us. Beautiful girl.”
Even his efforts to speak as if to comfort him were not worth it, Prianian replied bluntly.
“Then I need to talk to him. Where is he by any chance?”
“You will be back soon. By the way, what’s the name of the lady…?”
“This is the Golfian G-House.”
Standing with his eyes slightly covered, he said, offering him a handshake.
“What is your name, by any chance?”
Then the merchant grabbed my hand with a slightly disappointed expression.
“You can call me Pine.”
“Nice to meet you. Mr. Pine.”
After shaking hands with Pine, I waited for the people who followed him.
The size of the trip was smaller than I expected.
Three merchants and two mercenaries. One man was not enough to cross the gorge.
But considering that they were only taking two mercenaries on such a rough road, at least the skills of those two people were considered not bad.
A blunt middle-aged man who seemed to be the head of the upstream greeted me.
“Hot.”
“This is G-House.”
“Are you passing through the canyon, too?”
“Yes. What about that one?”
Hort nodded his head in response to my question, then glanced behind me.
“Are there four of you? Then wait until there are ten-“
“No.”
After the young lady stopped talking from behind, she raised her hand.
Then a man-like mirage walked out from behind the tent and waved his hand gently.
“Five of us, five of you. I’m guessing this isn’t enough to cross the gorge tomorrow.”
Hort, who slightly frowned at the sudden short talk, nodded his head and said,
“Good. For us, too, time is gold, so this number should be enough.”
“Then, it seems that the number of people passing through the gorge has been solved like this. Where will you put your camp?”
Hot gave the answer right away, as if he didn’t have to think about it.
“Your campsite and our campsite will be separated from each other. We’re going to break up after passing the gorge tomorrow anyway.”
After hearing Hort’s words, Pine looked at him with a slight pity, but then turned his head again with a sharp glare.
“I see.”
I gladly accepted his offer.
Anyway, it’s better to draw a line between each other in this area than to have something unsavory like theft happen.
Besides, seeing that all of our party were women, Hort’s proposal was, to me, a complaint against non-monitoring.
“I’m glad you can communicate well. At least the journey tomorrow will be smooth.”
Hort nodded and gestured to the two men behind him.
The mercenaries in leather armor, each holding a round shield, a mace, and a spear, quietly stood up, and the head of the upper ranks opened their mouths.
“Anyway, I don’t think money is an issue when it comes to crossing the canyon. It would be more convenient to talk to the mercenaries in charge of our security.”
Hot, who said to have a comfortable conversation, headed towards the merchants, and soon, only mercenaries from both sides were left in the conversation.
“A C-class mercenary, Max who can pierce stones.”
A mercenary with an impressive spear leaning loosely on his shoulder started introducing himself. It was common among mercenaries to introduce himself as if he were showing off when he first met him.
The next one, who seemed confident in his skills, was a mercenary holding a large round shield.
A man with a slightly warm expression looked at me and said.
“D-class mercenary, Carl. It’s called the sword of iron walls, just take it off and call it. It’s not like we’re even asking for nominations among ourselves, so what?”
Karl and Maxra. These are names that seem to stick in a library and write a book.
After introducing themselves, the duo of Capital Theory of Another World looked at us without saying anything. As if it was your turn this time.
“Nice to meet you. I am an F-class mercenary, Golfian G-House.”
“F grade?”
Perhaps my introduction was somewhat embarrassing, Carl’s expression slightly collapsed, and anxiety began to settle on one side of his face.
But Max asked me something out of the blue with a worried expression.
“Did you come here as an adventurer or something else before you became a mercenary?”
“Why do you ask that?”
“Sometimes there are people like that. Those who don’t raise their ratings to hide their power.”
“Oh my God. Why are you doing that?”
I shook my head because it was a huge misunderstanding to see people as strong.
“As Mr. Max said, I came here from another job. That’s why the rating is low because there is little experience.”
He worked as a slave for five years before becoming a mercenary, so he wasn’t lying.
Hearing that, he immediately nodded his head.
“I’m glad you’re not at least a rookie. People like me can tell just by looking at the worn knife handle. By the way, what grade is the beautiful lady next to you?”
To Max’s question, Prianian gave a concise answer.
“It’s a C-class double mercenary, a prianian.”
This time, the expressions of the two people hardened. But in a different way than before.
“…Max, did a C-class double mercenary make sense?”
“My lady, no, Mr. Prianian. Let’s check the mercenary card just once.”
At Max’s request, she took out her mercenary card and presented it.
After checking the mark written on it, the two looked at Prianian in amazement.
Then they looked at each other and nodded, then quickly unfolded the map of the canyon and laid it on the floor.
It was the preparation for the briefing.
“There are quite a few monsters living in the gorge, but most of them come out at a level that can be dealt with.”
“‘Most of them?’”
“We don’t even know what lives inside. That’s why we say most of them.”
Karl, who got lucky like that, soon shared information about the gorge.
As we are also mercenaries, what they provide is not very valuable information.
The tactic we came up with was simple.
“Let the three of us each take one direction, and let the spell sniper here solve the dangerous enemies.”
“Max, then wouldn’t the direction Mr. G-House is guarding over there be a bit precarious?”
“You can stop worrying about that.”
At Carl’s question, Prianian intervened instead.
As the two mercenaries looked at her, Prianian replied as if it were obvious.
“Because I can vouch for G-House’s skills.”
Then they nodded.
The nickname given formally by the guild gave him enough credibility to believe that he could call a deer a horse.
“If the spell sniper says so, you have to believe it.”
“Then we can go like this.”
After setting a time to assemble tomorrow, the two mercenaries went back to the merchants.
I spoke to Prianian, who was watching them from the side.
“Prianian, you don’t have to guarantee it.”
“At least it would be better for me to just vouch for you than to tell you that G-House is a joke. And…”
Pausing her words, she smiled softly and looked at me.
“I didn’t say anything wrong, did I?”
***
The next morning.
Two groups temporarily gathered to cross the gorge stood in front of a huge wooden fence.
A merchant who knew how to drive a horse was riding in the coachman’s seat of our wagon, in case I had to get off the wagon and fight.
In the midst of the two wagons standing, Carl and Max were standing in front of the wooden fence.
“Okay, open now. Max!”
“One, two!”
“Three!”
With those words, the two slowly opened the wooden fence door.
Catch up…
The wooden door wide enough for two wagons to fit simultaneously opens with a scream. We started slowly going into it.
Priest Rien, who was looking around the gorge, opened his mouth.
“It’s not as wide as we thought!”
“Probably only up to the throat of the gorge, that is, the beginning. Priest Lien. Now, they say it definitely widens after it comes out of the throat.”
According to the map Carl gave me, the inside of the gorge was narrow at the beginning and widened from the middle, like a boa constrictor swallowing an elephant.
The entrance seemed to be a safe zone, so there were no monsters around.
Multiple, multiple.
Kurrure.
Only the regular sound of horses’ hooves and wheels kept the tension of this brief procession alive.
“Ibosho, guaranteed mercenary there!”
Karl, who was riding in the upper carriage in front of me, called me by a strange nickname.
“That guaranteed mercenary came out. Why are you calling, Sword of Iron Wall?”
He replied in a rather tense voice.
“Now, I have called you to prepare for that as well. I just got out of the throat of the gorge.”
With those words, the narrowed field of vision gradually began to widen both sides.
“…Oh my god.”
It was only then that I realized why the minimum number of people allowed to enter the canyon was 10.
This wasn’t a canyon, it was almost a basin.
A world was created in this huge green pool with a slightly downward structure.
In the middle of the basin full of dense bushes, flocks of birds flew low in the distance, and from time to time, unknown movements were captured in the bushes.
From the primitive appearance where even the cries of the monsters could be heard, it was clear that the area below was not just a natural forest.
I asked the merchant who was driving the wagon next to me.
“Do you guys do business while passing through these places?”
Then the merchant, who looked to be in his 30s, smiled, revealing his rotten teeth.
“Big risk, big reward. It must be common sense that you all know well.”
With those words, the carriage went down there.
From noble mtl dot com
