Embracing Magic - E.M Chapter 156 (Part 2)

Although Aramia’s poor security was a drawback for merchants, they had no better alternatives.

“Don’t get off the carriage.”

“Why?”

“There are a lot of pickpockets here.”

Rodin gestured with his chin toward one side.

Larry looked in that direction and clicked his tongue.

“Are all those kids pickpockets?”

“At least half of them are. Look, one just pulled off a job.”

At Rodin’s words, Larry focused on observing the children more closely.

One of them stuck close to a wealthy-looking merchant walking down the street.

Then, with a swift motion, the child lifted a pouch from the merchant’s belt and concealed it in his clothes.

It was a masterful sleight of hand.

“Wow! That was really fast.”

“No kidding.”

If there were such a thing as a pickpocketing expert, that boy would surely be one.

If you didn’t keep watching, you would have almost missed the fact that the coin pouch had been stolen. It was truly an incredible skill.

“Big Brother Rodin, how about that inn?”

“Looks good. Let’s go there.”

Once again, they chose the largest and best-looking inn in sight. As expected, this place also had an annex.

“Brother, didn’t you say you were going to stock up on food?”

“Let’s try it first.”

“Aha.”

Just because it was a high-end inn didn’t guarantee that the food would be good. For at least a day, they had to personally taste each meal and assess its quality.

“Brother, I’m going to visit the mercenary guild for a bit.”

“Karis.”

“Yes. I’ll go with him.”

As Larry prepared to leave, Bianca joined him as well.

“Watch out for pickpockets.”

“Don’t worry.”

“If I hadn’t known, that’s one thing, but now that I do, there’s no way I’ll get caught off guard.”

“Alright. Be careful.”

Not far from the city gate, the symbol of the mercenary guild was visible. Since they had already seen it on their way in, there was no concern about getting lost.

“Young Master.”

“Hm? Jena, what is it?”

“Why are there so many pickpockets here? I don’t understand.”

“Because of the waterways, this place is practically connected to multiple countries. People from all over gather here, bringing all sorts of problems along with them.”

A flourishing trade meant a high influx of people. A transient population meant that many individuals here weren’t permanent residents.

Drifters typically didn’t care much about local laws. If things went south, they could simply leave.

“Does the lord bear no responsibility for this?”

“The lord is largely at fault. Take the Richmond Marquisate, for example—its security is excellent. They invested continuously in maintaining order, looking ahead to the future. But here? They’re too focused on making money right now and only think about ways to collect more.”

Excuses about the resident population and transient visitors were just that—excuses.

Had the lord managed things properly, the rampant pickpocketing and constant crimes wouldn’t have been a daily occurrence.

The large number of beggars in Cedra Forest was also proof of the vast wealth disparity in the Aramia Territory.

—

Even when evening came, Larry and Bianca had yet to return. They must still be reviewing requests at the mercenary guild.

With no other choice, Rodin ate dinner alone.

Fortunately, the inn’s food was satisfying. It wasn’t on par with what Margaret and Matthew cooked, but there was nothing to complain about.

“Oh? You’re done eating?”

“No way! Brother Larry, I told you we should have come back sooner!”

“I didn’t expect this to happen either. Sigh.”

“Exactly. You should have managed your money better. Big Brother Rodin specifically warned you about pickpockets.”

From their conversation, it was obvious—they had been robbed.

They probably spent a long time wandering around trying to track down the thief. Even without seeing it, the whole scene played out vividly in Rodin’s mind.

“You lost money?”

“Yes. I found a good request and went to apply for it, but then I noticed my pouch was empty.”

“Tsk tsk, I told you to be careful.”

“Brother Larry got pickpocketed because he was too focused on reading requests at the guild. My coin pouch is just fine!”

Aramia had a unique system called “fixed requests.”

One of them involved hunting lizardmen that appeared in the river. The task was considered complete as long as you brought back their tails.

For wooden-rank mercenaries, each tail earned them 1 request point. Meanwhile, for iron-rank mercenaries like Bianca, they needed two tails to gain 1 point.

“Did you lose a lot of money?”

“About 2 gold.”

“Think of it as the cost of a valuable lesson.”

“I suppose… Sigh, it’s not about the money. It’s just embarrassing.”

He had been warned about pickpockets that very day—only to fall victim to one.

It was too humiliating to even make excuses.

“So, are we skipping dinner?”

“No. If you ask, they’ll serve you. Eat up.”

“Okay. By the way, how long are we staying here?”

“The Richmond Marquisate’s territorial war is in about 20 days. We’ll stay until then.”

There were exactly 22 days left until the territorial war between the Richmond and Rotton Marquisates.

Since they had arrived early, they had plenty of time to rest.

“Is it close from here?”

“It’s about a day’s journey. We’ll leave at the right time.”

“In that case, I’ll take some mercenary requests while we’re here.”

Larry’s current request points were at 1.

To become an iron-rank mercenary, he needed 10.

That meant he had to hunt 9 more lizardmen. With some luck, he could finish it in a single day.

“Alright. Just make sure the requests don’t take you too far. While you’re at it, you might as well aim for an iron rank this time.”

“But what about Karis and Jena? Won’t they join?”

“Who knows? Do you two want to?”

For Karis and Jena, mercenary ranks weren’t particularly important.

They had only obtained their mercenary badges for identification purposes.

However, in order to maintain their mercenary status, they had to take on requests periodically. Unlike Rodin, who held a platinum rank, they couldn’t simply ignore the system.

“Since we need to guard the Young Master, we’ll take turns accompanying Larry.”

“Alright. Do whatever works best for you.”

Rodin, of course, had no interest in taking on requests.

He had no ranks left to climb and didn’t want to waste time on mercenary work.

—

The request Larry took on was a lizardman hunt.

It was the kind of request where wooden-rank mercenaries could quickly become iron-rank, and iron-rank mercenaries could just as quickly advance to copper-rank…

Or so they thought.

“Chiiit!”

Thump! Thump!

“Are you sure… this is something a wooden-rank mercenary can handle?”

“It doesn’t seem so.”

For the first day of the request, Karis had come along with Larry.

As always, Karis wore a blank expression while watching Larry fight the lizardman.

Thump! Thump!

“Urgh… Right? It’s not just that I’m weak, is it?”

“Block properly. You’re going to get hurt.”

“Blocking… at least…! Ugh!”

Larry had fought two orcs before.

Well, technically, Karis had cut off the arm of one, so it was more like one and a half.

Though it had been tough, he had managed to win.

He hadn’t even suffered minor injuries.

Yet now, even against a single lizardman, he was barely managing to hold on.

Counterattacking was out of the question.

Swish! Boom!

The lizardman spun its spear skillfully, striking like the wind.

It was a sharp, precise attack aimed at an opening.

Gritting his teeth, Larry took a step back and tilted his shield, narrowly deflecting the spear.

“Perfect.”

“What is?”

“It’s the perfect opponent for you. Think of this as training.”

“Training… training.”

Thinking about it that way, Karis might be right.

Lizardmen were weaker than orcs in terms of raw strength, but they were much faster.

On top of that, they wielded spears with impressive skill.

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