Mercenaries 

Upon entering that tavern, Tenur's group came across a noisy place, with several people sitting around different tables around an area of about 30 square meters.

People were dressed more or less the same way, with tunics that only seemed to have different colors. In contrast, some had accessory items that set them apart from others.

For example, some customers had items on their heads that served to protect them from the sun, while others had necklaces and the like, items of value to mere free men like most of the people there.

Meanwhile, the place was quite dusty, the floor was made of stone, and the walls had cobwebs on top. In other words, it was a shabby place, as was Mero's store in this city before Tenur arrived.

This foreigner saw this and expressed disgust, seeing that in this filthy and fetid place, food was served as if there was no problem.

Shui and Amir treated this as usual and moved ahead of Tenur toward the man who fit the description they had heard.

"Are you the mercenary Sefu?" Amir asked as he addressed the word to a strong man, not very tall, but big in every way, with a square face, the kind that would make anyone rethink their actions just by seeing him.

Beside this man was another man who looked just like him, only a few years younger.

He was thinner, with a beard full of the same color hair as his black hair, which was of the curly type, common to find in the area, given the hot and dry climate.

The two looked at Tenur's group, and the smarter of the two replied. "Yes, this is my brother Sefu, and I am Sati. What do you want?"

Tenur stepped forward and said. "Gentlemen, we represent lord Mero Touma, the owner of the local Touma family store.

We are here to offer you a full-time job for lord Mero."

"Full-time job?" Sati frowned, curious about that.

But Sefu didn't like working for nobles like Mero and said. "We are not interested. Go away."

Amir looked at that individual and clenched his fists, feeling that it was very disrespectful of this person not to even listen to them.

When they spoke Mero's name in a situation like this, they were not just acting for themselves but acting on behalf of their master. As such, that individual's refusal was like a refusal to their own master, which in itself was an offense.

"Sefu, perhaps you would like to hear what we have to say? After all, keeping the doors open is best to avoid running out of alternatives." Amir said, with a veiled threat in his words.

Upon hearing that, Sefu immediately stood up, already with a knife in one of his hands. "What do you mean by that, servant? Are you threatening me?"

Gulp!

Shui was not a warrior, so upon witnessing this, he stepped back, fearing that he was standing next to two lunatics.

On the other hand, Tenur had already dealt with rash people like Sefu in his life in Rinia. There were these proud individuals who would refuse to work for some people because of a bad track record or sheer arrogance.

One must use a different strategy than Amir's veiled threats to deal with such people.

"Gentlemen, take it easy. We are here to talk, not fight. In fact, we rightly want to pay you to avoid this kind of situation in lord Mero's store." He said, looking at Sefu but mostly at Sati.

Sati was clearly the smarter of the two and the one who managed the duo's business. In this case, gaining his interest was the shortest way to resolve the situation.

"We will pay each of you one silver coin per day for your services as security guards for lord Mero's store." Tenur was straight to the point. "We only require you to split shifts to watch the store during all-day periods.

But other than that, in addition to your daily pay, we will provide you with food and a place to rest if you don't already have one."

In Noskain, all the land belonged to the royal family. But on the other hand, this organization gave noble powers the right to manage some territories in their place in exchange for tax payments.

Because of this reality, few people in this kingdom owned their property. As was the case with these two men, most of them had to pay to sleep in inns or even in abandoned places because there were hardly any opportunities to buy land or property there.

Options to do this existed, but they were difficult to get information about and usually cost a lot because they involved vast areas, etc.

There were many difficulties for a man to have his residence, so these two had to spend much of their resources on housing.

Tenur was putting himself in the position to solve this problem and still guarantee a regular and generous salary for the two!

Sati looked at Tenur interestedly, feeling that this offer was too good to be true. He then asked. "What's the problem? There must be some problem for you to promise so much for such a simple service."

Sati was really smart, which is why he and his brother were still alive, even though they were over 35 years old and had never been on the roast of any noble.

In this society, men lived an average of 38 years, and in general, those without any noble association died even earlier since they usually had to give up their freedom to continue living.

Cases like that of Tenur, who sold himself into slavery to save himself from a miserable life without any perspective or purpose, happened more than one can imagine.

So the situation of these two men, who were practically beating the 'system,' was worthy of attention, and the one who made it all possible would not fail to ask Tenur the right questions.

That captive said. "There certainly is. Lord Mero's store recently launched some products that are already making a success locally. Still, precisely because of this, trouble may be approaching this store.

We are seeking your services for this. To have some men on our side in addition to our local allies."

These men usually got involved with jobs they had to fight, so upon hearing that they might have to do this against local powers, they didn't bother.

For the right payment, any danger was worth it!

These men would earn one silver coin a day for security work in Mero's store or 100 bronze coins, which was more than double what they normally received for a day's work. But not only that, they would not have to worry about food and lodging bills by agreeing with Tenur.

Sati liked that and looked at his brother, who didn't much like working for nobles but who he could always convince. "Brother, that sounds like a good job. Why don't we give it a try? Worst-case scenario, we'll drop it if we notice something wrong."

Sefu hated nobles because one of his childhood friends, whom he wished to marry, was once tricked by a nobleman and then raped and killed by that individual. So he avoided working for people of noble origin, and even when he did, he kept an eye on the attitudes of these people and their servants.

The servants of that nobleman responsible for his friend's death had raped her in sequence to her death!

Sefu knew this and saw nobles as the scum of society and every individual related to major powers as having the potential to do such atrocities.

He looked at Tenur, Shui, and Amir and said. "Let's make the deal, but if I find out anything dirty in that place, you should pray..."

"Hmmm, whatever..." Tenur smiled, pleased to get these two to work in the store.