Chapter 1604 Loser
"Here is the contract!"
As he received the parchment that was held out towards him, Emery was inwardly feeling quite anxious because of the word contract. His experience in the Silvermane Kingdom made him worry about such things.
Fortunately, after reading the contents written on the parchment, said contract turned out to be a contract between the Turtle Rock Mercenary Guild and the employer, which in this case was Magus Hellast of the Raven faction.
The down payment for the job, which was half of the agreed payment, would be kept by the guild and only given out after the job was done.
This way, things would go much smoother as if there was a dispute, the employer would have to face the whole Turtle Rock pirates; on the other hand, the payment would not have any difficulty to be returned if the mercenaries didn't do the job properly.
As Emery has no plan to help the Raven faction, this meant that Emery would most likely not see even a smidge of spirit stones for the job. Of course, he was absolutely okay with that, because his objective in taking this job wasn't money at all.
Magus Hellast brought Emery and Armand to his group and then introduced the older man who had stopped them earlier as the Master of the Raven faction, Cyrus Raven.
Standing there with his arms hanging at his sides, the man gave off the air of a veteran warrior that somewhat reminded Emery of Senior Izta. Knowing that they were neighbors living on the same planet, he couldn't help but wonder how close their relationship had been in the past.
"We will be leaving this rock tomorrow," The man said after providing some information about how the group would be staying in one of the inns nearby.
Since the job technically started right away, Emery was expected to join the Raven group and begin guarding them by staying around the vicinity of the inn. When the group finally headed inside to rest, he found himself having nothing to do.
Unable to leave the premises, Emery decided to go to the pub next to the inn instead. There, he found his new teammate Armand Nephilim, sitting in a corner of the bar enjoying a drink.
Remembering the questions he had when he saw the man, Emery decided to walk over. Taking a seat next to the man, he motioned to the lady at the bar and pointed at the Nephilim saying, "I'll have what he's got and give him another round on me."
Armand turned and shot Emery a look full of suspicion. In response, he shot a faint smile as he said, "Come on, there's no need for animosity between the two of us. After all, we will be working together for the next two weeks. As for the drink... just think of it as me appreciating your impressive prowess."
The golden-haired young man responded to Emery's compliment with a nod before picking up the new glass and downing the drink in one gulp. Seeing that, Emery motioned to the woman again saying, "One more for my friend here."
It seemed that the word friend was a bit too much because Armand showed a slight frown on his forehead. Nevertheless, he still accepted the drink. This time, he took his time drinking it. Not only that, the expression on his face said something heavy was on his mind.
Curious to know what he was thinking, Emery ordered another drink before saying, "Actually, I've seen you before..."
Seeing Armand raise his eyebrows, he told the Nephilim how he had seen him in Magus Academy's Magus Game and was impressed with his skill since then.
Of course, Emery intentionally chose this topic because he was interested to see how the Nephilim would react to the mention of himself, the opponent Armand fought at that time.
At first, he thought Armand would be annoyed that he was bringing up what must have been a very bad day in his memory. But to his surprise, the latter let out a long sigh as he muttered,
"If I had won back then...would my life be any different from now?"
"It might be." He chuckled. Swirling the drink in his hand, the Nephilim looked a bit melancholic as he said, "After all, winners become heroes... while losers will be thrown away like trash."
This time without Emery even asking, Armand began telling how he was so exasperated by this one particular young man from the lower world, how miserable he had been watching the young man grow stronger at such a rapid pace, to the point of giving him a curse of hopelessness.
As if that wasn't enough, things turned worse when that young man he saw as a rival became a hero that saved even him – someone who always hated him – from the clutches of death. Before he could process what he was feeling, he learned that the young man had died, which only made him feel even more lost.
Seeing such turmoil from the Nephilim, made Emery quite surprised. He didn't expect the man to think this way of him. Somehow, it made Emery pity him.
Meanwhile, Armand finished his drink and ordered another one. He then continued his story, recounting how he had been kicked out of his faction for his constant losing.
"They only care about that genius Eeshoo!! It wasn't our fault that he was killed, so why are we the ones to blame for that?!" He said, slamming his hand on the bar counter.
Apparently, this was the reason for Armand's downfall. Having lost the faction's favor due to the loss of their golden boy at that time, he had instead done something stupid. He was caught stealing the faction's treasure, which resulted in him being banished from the faction.
With his reputation ruined, Armand truly had nowhere to go other than shady places like this, hanging around with, in his eyes, a bunch of losers.
Armand seemed to have become completely drunk as he shouted, "This is where I really belong. A loser with a bunch of losers!!"
Emery couldn't help but feel empathy for the man. With a sigh, he rose from his seat and supported Armand's body saying,
"You have enough, friend. Let's get some rest now. Our work starts tomorrow." Emery then carried the man to his allocated room.
The next day, early in the morning, Magus Hellast summoned the two of them. "I need one of you to accompany me to see the pirate king."
Since Armand was still recovering from last night, the job landed on Emery's hand.
Btw, Eeshoo is not dead.
Avan
CREATOR'S THOUGHT
Updated from fr𝒆ewebnov𝒆l.(c)om