Chapter 288: Act 65 Mercenary Code (2nd update)_2

He spoke while turning back to look, “But now, I apologize, we have a little situation here, I’m afraid I have to leave immediately. If Mr. has time, on behalf of our commander, I welcome you to visit our Hired Army anytime.”

Brand smiled, this guy was obviously impatient and wanted to privately look for that young man from before. But he pretended not to notice, acting as if he suddenly understood: “I see.”

“What a coincidence.” He quickly added.

Caber was about to take his leave but froze when he heard this: “What?”

“It’s like this,” Brand smiled, straightforwardly following the other’s words: “Actually, this time I came to Chablis not for business, but to find something.”

Caber was slightly stunned and stopped with a frown.

“What are you looking for?”

“Just a stone tablet that records ancient documents, these things exist in the Balrog ruins, found on stone tablets that Silver Elves used to record significant events. But Mr. Caber, you know, those ruins were occupied by a group of Lizardmen a year and a half ago.” Brand answered unhurriedly as if this were a true matter: “I came to Chablis three months ago to investigate the specific situation of those Lizardmen bandits in the forest. This time I brought some mercenaries, intending to sneak in and steal the tablet, but unexpectedly, I ran into you and the others, Mr. Caber.”

Caber was completely stunned: “You’re saying…”

Brand immediately nodded: “Yes, according to the rules, to avoid conflict, I suggest we use the interpretation of the rule in the 314th chapter of the Mercenary Code to reach an agreement, how about that? That is, my men and I temporarily join you, and under the premise of not endangering ourselves, we put in effort to fight alongside you. Then, after the operation, we go our separate ways and each take what we need, how about it?”

Most of the rules in the Mercenary World are not explicitly written down but are conventionally acknowledged and sufficient to resolve most disputes. However, the rules between mercenaries and employers are often thoroughly enforced, while the disputes between mercenaries and mercenaries often lead to differences. About a century ago, the Flame Temple’s subordinate institution for managing adventurers and mercenaries—the Explorer Guild compiled these customary rules into a mercenary common law called the Mercenary Code, setting a temporary method for resolving these disputes.

This code has been continuously revised, added, and deleted over the past hundred years, becoming quite comprehensive and perfect to this day, although it still contains some obscure provisions. For instance, the clause Brand mentioned was a conventional rule prevalent in the northern highlands of Erune about 150 years ago, but in this era, it has rarely been mentioned.

Therefore, Caber couldn’t help but freeze when he heard this proposal.

“This code, no problem is no problem…” Caber still looked at Brand somewhat suspiciously: “But I don’t have the decision-making power. If you are interested, Mr., you should meet our commander. His name is Macaro, known as ‘Mane Wolf’, he’s at the inn now, you should be able to find him there.”

“No problem.” Brand nodded: “Then I’ll take my leave first and not delay your business, Mr. Caber.”

By now, Caber had come to his senses and simply nodded in response.

Brand didn’t care about the reaction of this mercenary captain. He had this idea when he saw these people earlier; although the Lizardmen in the Balrog Forest were not particularly vicious, it would still be somewhat troublesome for him to delve in alone. With the help of these mercenaries, things would be much easier.

In the eyes of most who didn’t know its value, the Sage Stone Tablet would just be a piece of stone after all. In the past games, this tablet only gained value as cross-region tasks became more frequent.

Thus, Brand believed he could persuade the other party.

But who did Caber mention as their commander? Mane Wolf Macaro? Brand was slightly stunned and realized he almost missed such an important piece of information. The Mountain Wood Blue Mercenary Group, so it was them! They were one of the twenty-two most famous mercenary groups in the Southern Territory, but a young man recalls: didn’t the Mountain Wood Blue Mercenary Group only become famous in the Spring Dawn Year?

That should be five years from now.

He rubbed his forehead, somewhat puzzled for a moment. Did he remember wrong, or had history changed somehow?

But what Brand didn’t know was that, as he puzzled, Caber behind him was equally confused—

…

“Captain, who was that?”

Caber glanced at his subordinate who approached him and shook his head: “Not sure, seems like a local merchant.”

“He seemed quite familiar with our Mercenary Code, the 314th clause. I’ve never heard of the content of that code. Could it be fake?” a mercenary asked.

Caber shook his head. Of course, he knew it wasn’t fake. But he only remembered this clause after Brand mentioned it. It wasn’t a big deal. The Mercenary Code has over seven hundred clauses, too intricate for anyone to remember every detail. Besides the thirteen core clauses, most are supplementary interpretations and aren’t strictly followed in real mercenary life.

The thing that increasingly mystified Caber was Brand himself.

He felt that the young man was not that simple.

“More people can be good,” someone immediately said.

“That’s not necessarily true. Who knows if they are spies from that side.”

“That’s true—”

“Don’t worry. If he wants to join us, even temporarily, according to the code, he must pass the commander’s trial.” a mercenary replied: “The commander will definitely send Gab. Too bad Ecco ran into this problem now. Otherwise, he would take the spotlight this time.”

Mentioning Ecco, these young men couldn’t help but fall silent.

(PS: I initially wanted to write three chapters but found myself a bit rusty. But anyway, I finally got back on track. Writing over the Spring Festival was intermittent, resulting in losing the feeling for a while, only starting to recover in the past two days. Let’s recover and accelerate, sorry to keep everyone waiting.) (To be continued, to know what happens next, please log in to www.qidian.com for more chapters and support the author and legitimate reading!)