Wandering Mercenary in an Open World

After leaving the village, Luon headed straight to the city. There he planned to receive the Banshee’s bounty and run into rumors and incidents.

After walking along the highway for about half a day, a huge outer wall caught his eye in the distance. Luon, who came close enough to see the moss clinging to the old grey exterior wall, mixed in with the crowd and walked towards the gate.

“Stop.”

Two soldiers guarding the gate approached Luon.

“What’s your name?”

“Luon.”

Seeing the soldiers blocking Luon, the people whispered to each other and entered the main gate. It was one of the two cases where people were restrained like that at the castle gate, where traffic was relatively free.

Either he’s a criminal, or they are afraid he will cause trouble.

Luon was the latter case. He is taller than an average adult man and has a bow hanging from the back of his shoulder with a sword on his waist. It was a perfect appearance to be classified as a main character.

That’s a bother. Luon sighed briefly. Customizing to make a character that looks big and strong sometimes presented him with this kind of trouble.

The soldier who was scanning Luon up and down asked.

“Why do you want to enter Grungrad?”

“To receive a bounty.”

“What bounty?”

“A bounty is a bounty.”

In response to Luon’s dry reply, the two soldiers talked among themselves. Soon, one of them said,

“Before we let you go, I have a question for you. Is this your first time in Grungrad? “

As Luon responded with a nod, the soldier added.

“Due to the appearance of ghouls, the city has been under lockdown, I hope you don’t get into trouble for nothing. Come on, you are good to go through.”

Luon, who had passed the checkpoint and entered the city, tilted his head. Ghoul?

Luon had encountered that terrible monster that devours corpses several times before. And what he felt each time was that they gave him quite a bit of a salty experience. Having not levelled up for a while, he was intrigued by the news that a ghoul had appeared and approached the guard building on the outskirts of the city.

***************

“···Isn’t that fake?”

Luon responded with superhuman patience, suppressing the urge to shove his fist into the soldier’s pale face who was scratching his nose.

“That’s what I got after killing the Banshee.”

“I’m saying that because I can’t confirm it.”

“I didn’t wait for three days to hear that answer.”

Raising his eyes at the sharp answer, the soldier met Luon’s scorching eyes and quickly lowered his eyes.

“Hey, hold on. I’ll find someone who knows.”

“That’s the third time I’ve heard it. Isn’t there anything you can do on your own?”

“I’m sure it’ll be different this time.”

The soldier answered more seriously, as if asking him to believe. Even though he said that, he pushed even harder, so Luon had to step back.

“··· I’ll be waiting. You won’t tell me to come back tomorrow, will you?”

“I will see you as soon as possible.”

As the soldier went out the back door, Luon sat down with his buttocks on the chair. He looked out the window and saw the bustling city scene.

As one of the oldest cities in the kingdom, it was an impressive place with buildings where you can feel the traces of time, but that was a good thing.

What was supposed to be finished in a few minutes had already been going on for three days, and there was no time to see anything else.

The guards in Grungrad dealt with the monsters in the official documents they had hung, and even looked at the necklaces as a token. But they all left, saying, “I don’t know well, so I’ll call someone else.”

As if they had all planned it together, they did not forget to gently scratch Luon’s heart by adding, “Come tomorrow because we are busy with work today.”

Of course, he was told that there was a shortage of personnel because of the sudden appearance of the ghouls, but three days was too long even after considering all these circumstances.

When the hell are you going to come?

When he remembered the soldier who could not see his nose even after a long time, he sighed. No matter what, it is a place that governs a fairly large territory, but the handling of business is erratic. ‘Do I really need to turn it upside down?’

“Did you wait for a long time?”

By the time Luon’s patience reached its limit, a middle-aged man who looked old came in through the door. As if he had heard the story beforehand, he immediately grabbed the necklace on the table and fiddled with it for a while.

“There’s a light but old curse. It’s an object related to evil spirits.”

“Oh, thank you. Old man.”

The soldier who followed bowed his head toward the middle-aged man. Judging by the title of “senior”, the middle-aged man did not seem to be related to the military. Is he a wizard?

After a while, the soldier came back with both hands full of silver coins.

“Sorry to keep you waiting. Please understand that I don’t have any gold coins right now, so I’m paying the full amount in silver.”

As Luon looked silently at the piled-up silver coins, the soldier asked in a low voice.

“Do you need a separate bag? Then I will have to take one silver coin…”

‘Shameless. Trying to charge a silver coin for a leather bag? Even the ice cream sold at the top of the mountain wasn’t that pricey.’

“That’s all right.”

Luon snatched the reward from the soldier’s hand and poured the silver coins into his original leather bag. Fortunately, the bag was large enough, so there was no accident where he couldn’t fit all the silver coins in the bag.

Seeing the soldier’s eyes full of regret, Luon frowned. He knew this would happen. It’s bullshit that there are only silver coins left?

Luon, who was seriously thinking about whether he should destroy the unscrupulous man who was trying to take away his reward, left the building thinking the sluggish work was over thanks to the soldier calling the middle-aged man.

‘What would be good for lunch today? Is there a good blacksmith here? I need to buy plenty of jerky.’ Someone quietly blocked the path in front of Luon, who was walking while thinking of things like that. It was the middle-aged man who had just appraised the necklace.

The middle-aged man said

“Someone is looking for you. I hope you won’t refuse.”

***************

Although Luon had adapted to the medieval fantasy world, only the aristocracy was still uncomfortable. Even though he has a strong body and excellent combat skills due to his mad levelling, he still feels like he is completely useless in front of the nobles.

Could it be that Luon was born into an ordinary family? You guessed correctly. It means that he is unable to adapt to a world in which his civic personality (TL Note:-role in the society) has completely changed.

So Luon was very uncomfortable and annoyed at the same time. Because the person who called him happened to be an aristocrat. It was also the wife of the Lord.

Median, wife of Delphion, lord of Grungrad, sat in an antique chair and looked at Luon. Luon was quite burdened by her gorgeous face adorned with dazzling decorations and dark coloured makeup.

She licked her bright red lips.

“Are you the warrior who killed the Banshee?”

She didn’t seem to want an answer, so he just stayed still. Sure enough, Median didn’t wait.

“I’ve been looking into you for the last couple of days. I was intrigued by the rumours that you killed the Banshee alone.”

“Did you find anything?”

Unlike Luon, Median replied as if waiting.

“Of course. Luon. Or, should I call you Wyvern Slayer?”

While Luon’s forehead slightly wrinkled, Median rolled up her bright red lips vigorously.

“I expected you to be famous, but honestly, it exceeded my expectations. I never imagined that you would be the warrior who killed the Wyvern in Nardam and then suddenly disappeared.”

It was true. Luon once worked as an escort for a merchant company in the city of Nardam, and one day, when a hungry Wyvern attacked the carriage from the sky, he cut the winged lizard to pieces.

Upon hearing the rumours, the lord of Nardam showed a frantic drive to marry his daughter to him, and of course Luon left Nardam immediately. It was not enough to force the warrior who killed the Wyvern to be his permanent bodyguard.

‘Dog shit. All of that was for nothing.’

A bitter laugh leaked out. He thought it would have been forgotten after quite some time, but the noblewoman in front of him was confident that he had hunted the Wyvern.

So Luon decided to just admit it.

“I do remember killing such a monster. It was not an easy battle.”

“That’s great.”

Median smiled and reached out to the side. The maid standing next to her quickly handed her a glass of wine in her hand.

After taking a light sip, Median spoke.

“My husband is a hero. That too a war hero. Do you know what that means?”

Luon didn’t answer.

“He is a terribly lustful man, as are most people who have established themselves on the bodies of their enemies. While I pray for his health and victory, behind my back, he has a new woman every day in his arms.”

When he first heard that the lord was a war hero and a horny person, Luon nodded without a soul. Oh yes. Is that so?

“I can understand it if it was at war. I’m not an idle person to complain to my husband, who has been on a rough battlefield for years, to protect his principles. But it’s a problem if it’s still going on. Isn’t it my job to set an example to the women who are flirting with my husband without thinking?”

Wait a minute. Could this woman?

“If you’re going to ask me to murder someone, I refuse.”

At Luon’s resolute words, Median’s eyes widened. Then, she squealed like crazy. Her body was shaking so much that her wine overflowed, and after barely holding her breath, she tapped the tears that flowed from her eyes with the back of her hand. ‘Is this funny enough to bring tears to her eyes?’

“Do I look like a foolish woman who would ask a Wyvern Slayer to kill her husband’s mistress?  Besides, you don’t have to worry because someone else has already finished the job.”

‘Then why did you call me? I thought, but I didn’t say it out loud. It was clear that this woman would tell everything on her own if he stayed still.’

“The bitch is already dead. Under a witch’s curse, her whole body was twisted, and she occupied a place in the cemetery without a rat knowing it. It would have been great if it had ended just like that, but unfortunately, there was a problem… Ghouls started appearing in the cemetery after that bitch was buried.”

Ghouls? Luon’s eyes widened slightly at the unexpected word.

“Is it a coincidence? This is by no means a coincidence. There must have been a problem with the curse or the witch must have tampered with it. It made my situation worse. The Lord had ordered the subjugation of the ghouls, and I might get caught. So I want you to solve this before it happens.”

What a coincidence.

From the standpoint of Luon, who was interested in the Ghouls, there was no reason to refuse. He was trying to find out quietly considering the situation would cause friction with the guards, but if he gets paid, he would kill two birds with one stone.

Median quickly added to Luon, who smiled inwardly at the unexpected situation.

“You’d better not think about saying no. As I said, I’ve looked into your tracks, and that’s in line with the fact that I know who killed the five people in Grungrad’s estate recently.”

‘What? Are you threatening me?’

At Median’s words, Luon’s head exploded and he remembered for a moment the dead ponytail. The woman seemed to want to prevent him from escaping.

“They were robbers trying to kill me, not ordinary people”

“With one word, the robbers become good residents in an instant.”

Median grinned at Luon with a triumphant expression on her face. He had no intention of rejecting her in the first place, but Median’s absurd threats seems unreasonable.

“Well, that’s fine. I will do it.”

When Luon nodded casually, Median’s face was dyed with a look of embarrassment for a moment. It seemed far from the expected response. After a moment of silence, she slowly opened her mouth.

“···great. Wyvern Slayer, you just have to go to the place where the bitch is buried before the subjugation party and remove the reason for the sudden appearance of the ghouls.”

For the first time, Luon replied without delay.

“Tell me where the cemetery is.”