436 Mercenaries
"Can you tell me the rules?", asked Axel.
"I am sorry Axel. Since it is very rare for the league to give the title, I don't know about the rules. But I know one of them. Every member of the team must have an elemental rank Pokemon."
"Every one of them must have it? Isn't that very harsh?", asked Axel.
When a soldier has an elemental rank Pokemon, they would be eligible to become a lieutenant. The Lieutenant was in a position of power. It was not as powerful as the zone commander but a lieutenant would guide and order cadets and captains. So, the condition for every member to have an elemental rank Pokemon was very harsh.
"It is. That is why it is very rare to have that title….."
Blade started to talk about other things and soon Lorelai and her mother also joined the conversation. It was a happy and lively dinner. Lance and Axel excused themselves to go to their home and hotel.
Lorelai's father offered them to stay here for the night but they declined. They knew that it would not be polite to accept it.
###
Next day,
Tring.. Tring.. Tring.. Tring…
Katchak…..
"Hello,"
"Good morning leader. It is me, Hector."
"Oh hey, Hector. Is everything okay? Why did you call me so early?"
"I am just excited to tell you that all the members have arrived yesterday night. We plan to meet at XXXXX location at around 10 a.m. Are you free at that time?"
"Yes, I would be free. Let's meet there. Send me the name of the location again. I am still half asleep so I could not catch the name.", said Axel and hung up the phone.
He looked at the time and it was 4 a.m. He had a habit of waking up at 5 a.m. and that was very early. Normally trainers would not wake up so fast. Hector called him 1 hour before his waking time.
He slept for an hour and woke up at 5 a.m. He went to shower and did his morning duties. He then went to the garden and called all of his Pokemons for breakfast.
NIDOOOO
STEE
Venu….
All of them gave their loud cheers. Since they were in the city, it was very hard for Axel to get them out of the balls. That was one of the reasons for him choosing this hotel. The area of the hotel was very big and he could let his Pokemons out.
He bought food for all of his Pokemons. Since he had a lot of Pokemons, the food expenses in a hotel were big but he didn't care much about it. Axel was very rich right now.
Even though he invested a lot of money in the training grounds, the money was from Oak. So, he had a few billion Poke dollars with him.
The family had also earned a few million Poke dollars from the competition and he didn't take any of that money. He gave that money to his mother. His mother was very happy earning so much money.
It must be noted that Axel was from a middle-class family. A few million dollars was a huge amount for his family. His family never accepted any money from him. They were too proud to accept his money. So, when they earned a few million Poke dollars from the competition, Axel didn't take any of it.
He enjoyed the breakfast with his Pokemons. He was famous from the last day of the preliminaries. Many people came to him to ask for his autograph. Axel was happy to sign some papers. Within a few minutes, there was a crowd of people all around him.
The hotel employee came and helped Axel to get away from the situation. They strictly said that other people were not to disturb him. The people were very cooperative and they didn't disturb him after it.
Axel was happy that he was going to go to the Johto region. People didn't know him there and he wanted to have a free life. He realized that he would not have a free life in the Kanto region.
Axel took a long breakfast and spent time with his Pokemons. After the clock hit 9:30 a.m. he stood up and proceeded to go to the said location to meet Hector.
The location was connected to GPS, so it was easy to get to the location. When he came up to the location, he found out that it was sort of a warehouse. The warehouse had a shutter in the front and it was big. There was also a long door.
Axel didn't know if this was the right location. Why would Hector call him here? He didn't want to call Hector again. Calling his subordinates multiple times for the location would show that he was weak and not mature.
So, he didn't want to call him again. He took a deep breath and became ready to see all of them. He was supposed to be their leader. He had to be calm and indifferent. He had to show the qualities of the leader. So he tried to be as confident as he could.
He slowly started to walk towards the door, opened it, and entered the place.
###
Axel could see a lot of known faces inside the warehouse. There were thousands of people inside the warehouse.
There were over 31 thousand soldiers under him. More than 15k of them had died and 5k of them were permanently injured. So out of around 31k soldiers, only 11k were perfectly fit and fine.
Hector, Sam, and Troy. These 3 were the lieutenants of Axel. All of them came near them and gave Axel a low bow to greet him. All the other soldiers followed 3 of them and bowed to Axel.
"At ease. Ashmita come here and give me all the details. How many soldiers do we have right now?"
A young girl wearing a white shirt and a short skirt came beside Axel. She was a beautiful girl, long black hair. Her hairstyle was also very professional. A bun with a side swept bangs. He had a pen and a file with her in her hand and she spoke with utmost professionalism.
She was the secretary of Axel during the tide and everyone respected her. Cause after the 3 lieutenants, she was the one who had direct access to Axel.
"There were 11k left after the tide. Out of 11k, around 5k didn't want to be a part of the team. So, as of right now, including me, and the 3 lieutenants, we are 6,345 soldiers.", said Ashmita.
"Hmm, that is still good. Hector, tell me the plan. What is the plan here?", asked Axel.
"Sir, have you heard about the 'Mercenaries' title?", asked Hector.
"Yes, I have. But can you tell me the conditions to receive that title? I have heard that the league hardly gives that title."
"As expected of sir. You know about it. There are some conditions from the league side and it is hard.
1. All of the members should at least have 1 elemental rank Pokemon.
2. The leader must have 1 king-rank Pokemon.
3. There are 3 tiers for the mercenaries title. Tier 1 consists of up to 1,000 members. Tier 2 consists of up to 10,000 members and tier 3 consists of up to 50,000 members. There are many requirements for different tiers.
Since we have more than 1,000 members, we would fall on tier 2."
"Let me stop you there, Hector.", said Axel. They were now inside the office. The 3 lieutenants and the secretary were also there.
"Do we fulfill the first condition?", asked Axel.
"That is why we were training so hard. I am happy to announce that as of right now, except for Ashmita, all of us have 1 elemental rank Pokemon. Ashmita is considered a secretary and not a soldier. So, you don't need to worry about it, we fulfill the first condition.
We also saw all your battles and we are happy that we fulfilled the second condition too.", said Hector.
"That is good. Go on. What are the conditions for tier 2?", asked Axel.
"First is the money. The league wants us to be financially independent. We need 1 trillion Poke dollars to register.", said Hector.
"How much have you guys collected?", asked Hector.
"We have collected around 560 billion dollars.", said Hector.
"How could you collect so much?", asked Axel with a surprised voice. 560 billion Poke dollars was a huge amount for a normal person. A soldier would earn a good amount but not so much that they could amass such 560 billion Poke dollars.
"All of us chipped in. Plus I, Troy, and Sam had saved up some money.", said Hector.
"Return all the money to the soldiers. I will arrange 1 trillion Poke dollars. As a leader, I should do that much. So you don't have to worry about it.", said Axel.
"Sir, I don't think that the soldiers would agree to take the money back and I also don't want to force them.", said Hector.
"What about you guys?"
"Sir, if the soldiers won't take the money, how can I and others take it? We will also not accept it.", said Hector.
"Sigh ok. Keep the money in the vault. I will give you 1 trillion Poke dollars. We would have some extra money. Do we need to give some of the money to the league for the registration?", asked Axel.
"Yes, we need to give 100 billion Poke dollars to them.", said Hector.
"That is a lot of money. No wonder they are so rich. Do we earn money from the tide?" asked Axel.
"Yes, it is one of the most profitable businesses. It is very risky but also very profitable. Money would not be a problem for us. Since we will not be accepting merit points cause we cannot do that, the league will give us money instead of merit points.
We can also sell the carcasses of dead Pokemon body parts which would bring us a lot of money. It is a total money business."
"Ok, tell me other conditions.", said Axel.
"Since we are would tier 2 "Mercenaries', we would need a lieutenant for every 1,000 soldiers and the lieutenant must have at least 3 pseudo-king rank Pokemons.", said Hector.
"Those are some harsh conditions. Do we fulfill the requirements?", asked Axel.
"We are lacking in that. Troy, Sam, and I have selected the remaining 4 other lieutenants and 2 of them still had not met the conditions. It might take a few months for them to have 3 pseudo-king rank Pokemons.", said Hector.
"I can help you in the training but first I want to meet these 4 people and interview them personally.", said Axel.
"Of course sir. You have met them before but that would be for later. I will now tell you the last condition. The last condition to be in Tier 2 is that 20% of the sales should be given to the league."
"20% of sales not profits?", asked Axel again.
"Yes sir, the condition is very harsh.", said Hector.
"What are the benefits that we would get as a tier 2 "Mercenaries'?", asked Axel.
"There are a lot of benefits. The prime benefit is that we could choose which tide we want to face and go there. For us to be the part of the tide, the towns/village/ city would have to accept it. Since we are in tier 2, people would believe us more cause every soldier in our team would have an elemental rank.
Some of the towns/village/or city would even pay us by the day to be part of the tide. However, that would only happen when we would gather some reputation. The league would not get any money which is given by these towns/village/ or city.
They would only get the percentage from us selling the Pokemon carcasses. However, I must tell you that the amount we would earn from selling Pokemon carcasses would be a major part of our income."
"Hmm, that is good but 20% of sales is still too much. Can't we negotiate it with the league after we get some reputation?", asked Axel.
"Yes, we could do that but we need to have an upper hand to have that discussion.", said Hector.
"Ashmita, you would handle the finance of the team. I would guide you on the new ways to record the sales and expenses. Don't worry, it would not be difficult.
Our target would be to cover all our medical expenses and Pokemon resources from the money from merit points and the payment given by the towns. The money from selling the Pokemon carcasses should be pure profit.
80% would be for us and the rest would go to the league. We must maintain at least 1 trillion Poke dollars as reserve and you must give me a warning whenever our reserves reach close to 1 trillion Poke dollars.
Now, before I meet with the team, I have one question to ask you all. You know that I would not be a full-time soldier and would not invest every moment of my time-fighting in the tide. Why did you choose me as your leader? I could not be part of you every time.", asked Axel.
"The answer to that question is easy sir. First, we only believe you. Your powers and strategy had saved us all in Burbos town and no one can deny that.
The other reason is also very simple. There are very few mercenary teams in this world. None of them fight all year round. Most of them take around 3-5 tide battles in a year.
I believe that you could be part of at least 3 tide battles in a year and it would not hurt your trainer journey."
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