The Druid Who Swallowed Mother Nature - Chapter 41



Only Noblemtl

Episode 41. This is not a proposal.

District 16 is classified as the outskirts of Galaga City, as it is a district in the latter half of the 10th century.

It was not a distance that could be reached on foot or by public transportation from District 3, the center of the city.

It was a blessing to hear that Sylvester would be there as a guide during this difficult time.

‘Is that the car?’

When we arrived at the designated meeting point, a black-tinted forklift-like vehicle was waiting.

I walked over to the passenger seat and knocked on the window.

The window rolled down and a man in a suit asked from the driver’s seat.

“Who are you?”

“Are you Sylvester’s guide?”

“That’s true… but… could it be you?”

“I am Allen, the hired contractor.”

“Allen, Allen… … Oh, that’s right.”

Now that we’ve verified our identity, you may take a seat.

I reached into the window, unlocked it, and sat in the passenger seat.

“… … Aren’t you going to leave?”

But this guy is really stupid.

When I couldn’t stand it anymore and started nagging him, the guide finally came to his senses and started the engine.

“Sorry, I’m a little surprised.”

He kept stealing glances at my face as he spoke.

“I didn’t know that the contractor I was hired to do the job would be so handsome. I was so nervous because I thought he would be a vicious person with three or four sword marks on his face.”

“In this industry, it’s a bad habit to judge people by their appearance.”

“Is that so? I don’t know.”

The guide laughed heartily.

It was an innocence that was unusual for someone who was assigned the role of a guide for a commissioned service.

I had a bad feeling about this.

“Let me ask you something. How many years have you been with the company?”

“It’s just turned a year old.”

“You’re new. I thought so.”

“Haha, that’s what they all said.”

Even though it was a remark that could be considered insulting, the smile on my face did not disappear.

‘Did you really just give me the transport mission?’

It was the moment when my premonition that he was being annoying and was giving the youngest a hard time turned out to be true.

Even the largest corporations appear to have practices that are no different from those of other companies.

‘I don’t think it will help much, but… … .’

First of all, you have to do what you have to do.

I asked him the moment the car stopped at the traffic light.

“What is the situation on the ground?”

“I think you have a rough idea, but honestly, it’s not that good.”

There was quite a bit of information that could be examined in the request.

First of all, I wasn’t the only person mobilized for the request.

A mercenary group and their hired help were first engaging the gang.

I am, so to speak, an extra man, a stone that rolled in.

The information that could be inferred from it was that the situation was not good enough to require additional manpower.

“Gang Race Lizards are cunning. They thoroughly avoid direct confrontations and only engage in sporadic skirmishes. They take advantage of the terrain to set traps, making it impossible to easily approach their base.”

It was a development that I had roughly guessed.

They are a group of tenacious people who have survived by making a home in a part of the undeveloped area that was abandoned.

Among the criminal gangs, they are probably the most tenacious.

“Even so, the men that Sylvester called can’t handle even one gang?”

“Well, this is an internal company story.”

The guide lowered his voice even when there were only two people present.

It was an attitude that made it clear that it was a secret story without having to explain it in a painful way.

“This project isn’t particularly significant.”

“Wasn’t it about securing a site for a new business? Any company would treat a new business as important.”

“This is a project launched by a relatively weak line within the company’s faction. So the budget is insufficient and the team members lack motivation. If you think about it, isn’t it strange that they’re using the swamps of District 16 as a business site?”

The guide gave a self-deprecating, bitter smile.

The advance party, the mercenaries and servants on the scene, were unaware of Sylvester’s secret.

You might wonder why a large corporation would do such a thing, even verifying a single number like a knife, but since it was Sylvester, I understood.

‘Was this commission one of Sylvester’s failed ventures?’

Sylvester had a lot of business in the city, pushing the boundaries.

The public, who only remembers success, may not know, but his batting average did not even surpass .300.

It was the complete opposite of Centrim, who was revered as the Golden Hand and enjoyed great success.

This setting shows the difference between the perennial second place and the perennial first place.

‘You’re talking about surprisingly useful information?’

This is the inside story that a tight-lipped project executive would have kept hidden at all costs.

As a newbie with little experience, I couldn’t tell what to say and what not to say.

‘Does this mean there will be no support from Sylvester?’

The advantage of working for a large company is, of course, the generous support.

Some requests even went so far as to create individual action plans.

If the 16th District’s business was Sylvester’s neglected project, it would have been more realistic to think that such support would not have been provided.

“We have arrived.”

As I was gathering my thoughts, the guide stopped the car.

The place visible beyond the tinted window was my request, the forward base established by Sylvester.

***

The hot, humid air clung to my skin.

The dirt floor was strangely wet even though it hadn’t rained.

Every place my eyes and feet touched seemed to assert that this was the swampy District 16.

“… … .”

I stood still and looked around carefully.

“… … It looks really like that, right?”

The guide who accompanied me inside spoke first.

The atmosphere of the outpost built as a makeshift building was as sagging as its shabby exterior.

Mercenaries and servants who were full of energy, albeit in a bad way, were sprawled all over the floor, yawning in boredom.

Some of them seemed to secretly enjoy drugs, with their hazy eyes and pungent odor.

It was a lethargic attitude that made it hard to believe that this was a battlefield where sporadic fighting took place without pause.

“I heard the general vibe… … but it’s worse than I heard.”

Cromwell gave me a thorough briefing on the information he had about this commission.

The most emphasized of these was this atmosphere.

They are a complete bunch of losers.

There was absolutely no will to resolve the matter.

When the morale drops to this level, the client usually takes action, such as kicking out the employee and hiring a new employee or providing motivation.

There was no trace of any such measures being considered here.

Sylvester’s employees, who should have been appreciating the manpower, just passed by and muttered as if they didn’t see it.

‘They said it included a group of mercenaries with low reputations, but they’re no different from a group of thugs.’

It seemed like it was a dud.

Although better than the hired guns, there were also lower quality groups among the mercenary groups.

They are people who formed a group because they were afraid to act alone without a clear ideology.

They weren’t particularly concerned about the success or failure of the request.

All that was needed was the title of mercenary.

“I understand why the request is dragging on and on.”

The objective could not be achieved if the people who were supposed to fight had given up on the mission.

‘Then it would be an open secret that there is no support from Sylvester.’

Even if you didn’t hear it directly from the staff like in my case, you probably felt it firsthand.

So don’t act so bold against Sylvester.

If this business had been Sylvester’s regular project, they would have been killed off long ago.

“Then I will go now.”

The guide ended his journey with me and left.

No matter what the situation on the ground was, he did his job.

From now on, it was my turn.

“Are you the contractor that our client used to provide the blood transfusion this time?”

A man approached from inside as if taking turns.

A typical mercenary outfit, armed with bulletproof vests, swords, and guns.

He was indeed the leader of a mercenary band, and his body smelled thickly of gunpowder and blood.

He looked me up and down and clicked his tongue.

“Sylvesta has completely given up. Why did you bring in a handsome young master who would tremble at the sight of a gun and sword as a contractor?”

I looked at him blankly.

There was even a sense of amusement in the low-level, sarcastic tone of voice.

When I didn’t respond, he continued speaking in an annoyed tone.

“I am Percibel, the leader of the Python Mercenaries.”

“Allen the hitman.”

“Okay, you don’t have to listen, just keep quiet and follow me.”

“Where are you going?”

Percibel nodded inwardly.

It was a conference room, presumably the place he had just come out of.

“Let’s have a comfortable talk among the staff in a place without annoying surveillance.”

***

“What is the request you received?”

Percibel locked the door and asked me point-blank.

It was a fiery exchange of words, befitting a rough mercenary.

“Suppression of the Race Lizard Gang.”

“Heh heh heh.”

Suddenly Percibel burst into laughter.

I was laughing so hard I could barely hold my stomach.

He said, wiping away the tears forming at the corners of his eyes.

“You’re fucked.”

“what?”

“You said you were single. What a unlucky bastard.”

When I frowned, he elaborated.

“The request our mercenary group received is similar to yours, but different. It is to subdue the gang, but if that doesn’t work out, it is to protect the Sylvester staff.”

The request content is different.

Even if it’s the same thing, it can be advertised differently as it may require manpower for various purposes, but this was an obvious intention from the beginning.

“I never expected the gang crackdown to be successful from the start.”

“Yeah, these guys are the type of guys who are happy as long as they can hold on to their own lives.”

I could now understand the lethargic atmosphere at the scene.

At first, wasn’t their goal to crack down on gangs?

But he must have noticed that the gang’s resistance was unexpectedly strong.

If Sylvester had responded more strongly there, it might have been a different story, but they weren’t stupid enough to get hung up on a project that was destined to fail.

From then on, the mercenaries read the mood and completely changed their course.

“I don’t know who placed your request, but it seems they had different ideas. There are guys like that everywhere.”

There were also people who were serious about the project, like a new recruit who served as a guide.

It was unexpected that one of the upper echelons of the line that led the business was of that type.

The sad thing is that the situation won’t change with just that one effort.

Sylvester’s commission site was still the worst in every way.

Of course, what I have to do hasn’t changed.

“You don’t plan on helping me complete the mission?”

“Hey, you have to get straight to the point. We can just sit here and do nothing and still complete the mission. It’s different with you.”

Percibel leisurely placed her feet on the desk.

It was a clear expression of intent that I should suffer alone.

‘Why is it that, except for the Draxia mercenary group, all the guys I’ve worked with have been duds.’

Is this average or am I just unlucky?

It was a blessing that only made me sigh.

“Don’t have any unnecessary regrets and just think of it as a good study session and leave. It might be a shame to pay a penalty, but if you think of it as the price of your life, it’ll feel cheap, right?”

“Thanks for the advice, but that might be a bit difficult.”

This is not a request for money.

It was a march to investigate the never-ending spring that overturned the 16th district.

Even if we give up on the request and focus on the investigation, neither Sylvester nor the gang will look kindly on us.

Sorting out the situation was not an option, it was a necessity.

“I appreciate that you’re willing to waste your life on something so cheap. Whether you go foolishly or die, I won’t stop you.”

I closed my eyes and fell into thought, leaving Percibel’s taunts behind.

‘It’ll be hard for me to wipe out the gang by myself.’

The case of Brotherhood Branch 85 was different.

At that time, only the branch manager and a small number of elite people entered the negotiation room, and although it was an assassination aimed at the branch manager, the branch manager alone had a fit and caused a disturbance, so the matter was easily resolved.

This time it was an impossible operation.

Moreover, the Race Lizard Gang was on a different level from the 80th Branch of the Brotherhood.

Even if they rot, they are still a mercenary group.

Although the exact figures need to be confirmed, the presence of casualties and the repeated defeats attest to the high level of the gang.

‘It may not be impossible, though.’

It is inefficient.

I didn’t know how long it would take to finish preparing.

‘It also annoys me that I’m the only one suffering and these guys are the only ones getting a taste of the action.’

The reward for the success of a request is distributed fairly.

The Python Mercenaries could have gotten a huge payout without even lifting a finger.

‘I’m not a philanthropist.’

Such a stroke of luck was unacceptable.

‘Then what should I do?’

He tapped the table with his index finger.

If I was going to do it, I had to make these guys do their part too.

But these guys would never have chosen to fight all of a sudden instead of just resting comfortably.

then…….

“… … I guess I’ll have to force them to fight.”

The conclusion has been reached.

I stood up from my seat, stretching my body slightly.

“Do you still have no intention of fighting?”

“You’re just overflowing with foolishness. If you were in my shoes, do you think you’d bother going through all that trouble?”

“I think you’re mistaken about something.”

I approached the guy.

It’s a distance you can reach without any problem if you stretch out your arm.

Percibel straightened her posture and placed her hands on her waist, perhaps sensing the change in air.

“This is not a proposal.”

It was a futile struggle.

I was going to make it like that.

“It’s a threat and coercion.”

“This little shit treated me like this… …!”

Percibel drew her longsword and lunged at me.

“I want you to follow my orders with that momentum.”

Even bullets, which were consumables, were a luxury.

As he raised his fist, the tattoo of the sentinel falcon responded and glowed blue.