Recruiting

"Has he gone completely crazy?"

"He just wants to send people to their death! It must not be allowed."

"He is even asking for the right of the land? The audacity!"

The whole office of foreign affairs of Soleil Kingdom was in commotion because of a letter. The officers could not help but bewildered because the purpose of the letter was to ask for permission to explore Emmele Jungle. Emmele Jungle was regarded as the most dangerous among the lands adjacent to the kingdom.

The kingdom was not in a bad relationship with the neighbouring nations so there was no immediate danger from their sides. However, the jungle was ruled by monsters so the danger from it was unpredictable unlike the neighbouring nations.

There were a few expeditions in the past and those were all organized by the former kings. It was the same for the expeditions of other nations surrounding the jungle. Even so, none of those expeditions succeeded. So, the officers thought it was insolent for someone who was not even a royalty to ask for the permission to venture into the jungle.

Moreover, that person even asked for the right over the land he would conquer. Even the veteran officers who had been in the office of foreign affairs for a few decades never heard of such rudeness.

However, despite the officers' bad remarks, the minister of foreign affairs ordered to pass the request to the king's office when he saw the name of the owner of the letter. He knew that name too well. It was the noble whom the first prince favoured for unknown reasons. And there were even rumours about him being a retard.

In the first place, the reason that new nobleman was given the region of Boswel was so that when he makes a big mistake there, people would blame the first prince for making him a noble. Since that noble was too eager to make a 'big mistake' voluntarily, there was no reason for the minister, a supporter of the second prince, to approve his request.

Requests to the office of foreign affairs usually took several days to get an approval. And it took even longer for those that were submitted to the king's office. However, Huvel's request was approved in two days after it arrived the royal palace! When Huvel received the letter of approval sent back from the palace, he was not even ready to recruit people for his expedition team.

After a few days, the talk about the recruitment announced by the lord of Boswel was on the lips of everyone in the kingdom. People excitedly chattered about the recruitment on the streets, in taverns and in their workshops. Even soldiers of nobles were interested in it.

The cause of their excitement was because of the fact that the recruitment was for an expedition team that would venture into the dangerous Emmele Jungle. Moreover, the wages the lord of Boswel promised to pay was abnormally high. There were many that did not believe he would actually pay it.

However, not everyone could sign up for the recruitment as the qualification for it was high as well. The lowest limit was 2nd rank in weapon mastery or 2nd-circle in magic. Such skilled people were not ones who could be found abundantly on the streets.

The last but the most attention attracting fact was that the lord of Boswel, Viscount Senebres, said that he would personally lead the expedition team. It was the most discussed factor. Some thought the expedition would fail because the viscount was incompetent. Others thought the expedition team would retreat quickly because the viscount was with them and the team members would get easy money.

People of Boswel region were particularly interested in the additional recruitment that was announced only in the region. The recruitment was for skilled woodcutters and many labourers. People wondered why their lord was recruiting that many labourers when he should go into the jungle in a small group of elites. Nevertheless, there were many who want to take the risk to win the high wages.

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Huvel knew that it would not be easy to recruit strong people. He had already expected that no 3rd-rank weapon masters nor 4th-circle mages would apply for his team. In fact, the real strongest power of his expedition team was himself so he only needed a few seemingly strong people to cover up his façade. For that he sent letters to Marquis Algernon and Marquis Boden to lend him some of their knights that had reached the 3rd-rank in weapon mastery.

As for asking the King's support, Huvel had no intention to do it at all. In the first place, he sponsored the expedition because he wanted complete control over it. If the King or the higher ranked nobles were involved, he would have low to absolutely no authority over the expedition team.

And even if he were to ask, it was not likely for the King or the ministers to send help. Since the expeditions in the past had severe causalities, they would think sending their subjects to Emmele jungle was just a waste of their power.

In the end Huvel only had two 3rd-rank weapon masters from the two marquises and two 2nd-circle magicians sent by the first prince. There was not a single 3rd-circle magician but having two 2nd-circle ones was already good enough for the 'play' Huvel would make. There were two dozens of 2nd-rank weapon wielders from the regions near Boswel. Most of them were mercenaries.

The number of woodcutters and labourers were around forty. Huvel was surprised to get that many since it would be dangerous for them when a fight with a monster broke out.

"Are they too poor that they decided to risk their lives or are they confident that they would make it out alive since I'm going with them? Hmm, anyway since they are already here, I'll make sure that none of them die. Emmele Jungle, here I come again!"