Chapter 31: "You can't even fill your stomach, and you're still talking about sentimentality"

A skinny teenager, after standing behind the crowd and listening for a while, turned around and slowly walked away.

 Crouching behind the crowd on the street, Borg stared at the teenager.

 "Hey kid, come here," Borg picked up a rock on the ground and threw it.

 The scrawny teen slowly approached after seeing the dirt covered hunk, "Are you calling me?" The skinny teenager said timidly.

 "Yes, it's you, speaking badly? Why did you leave?" Booger looked at the teenager.

 "I have to go find food, I'm so hungry," came the rumbling sound from the skinny teen's stomach.

 "You go over there and look for a girl named Marena, tell her Borg asked for it and she will give you some food," Borg said as he pointed his finger to the side of the wall not far away. Looking at the scrawny teenager, he drifted off a bit, remembering the scrawny guy from his village who had followed him around since he was a kid.

 The back streets of Askell City.

 Zayin watched from afar the few gang members in the back street alley.

 After determining that there were only four of them, he said to a squad beside him, "Go."

 The squad of five quickly ran to the entrance of the back street alley, with the two shield bearers in the front, the two lancers standing on each side of the shield, and the soldier with the two-handed sword in the center of the five. The five slowly advanced towards the alley.

 "Who are you people?" One of the gang members said, and after receiving no response, several people quickly took up the weapons in their hands.

 The squad of five suddenly moved forward at a fast pace, the soldiers on both sides pierced forward with their lances, the shield soldiers, after slamming forward with their shields and knocking the four out of the way, then retreated violently to the back of both sides, and the soldier in the center with a two-handed sword quickly approached to slash.

 Without waiting for the four gang members to react, the two lances were already lodged in their bodies, and the two-handed swords cut down the remaining one holding a sword. The other two shield soldiers quickly moved forward again, holding short swords in their right hands, slashing through the throats of the four one by one.

 After finishing the fight, the five men searched the clothes of these gang members, pulling out some dinars from them, and after taking a few of the men's swords, they turned to leave.

 "How many?" Zayin asked with a smile as he stood at the entrance to the alley.

 "Not many boys. The world is bad, and this gang isn't rich," one of the shield soldiers said.

 "There's another gang in the waterfront over there, another trip?" Zayin looked at a few of the men.

 "Sounds fine to me," said one of the Southern Empire soldiers.

 With that, a few people walked towards the waterfront area of the city.

 "This isn't going to work either, there aren't many people here to join our mercenary group," Ramtor spat as he looked at the dispersing crowd.

 "Yeah, not enough to waste spit on," Zana chimed in and whispered again, "How about attacking the arena again?"

 "Yeah, I get excited every time I hear those guys talk about hitting the arena and attacking the main building of Hubia," Ramtor said, his eyes glowing at the mention.

 "What are you thinking about, Alva's troops are so strong," said Vahan, and then whispered, "We can't compare with her, and there are still troops in the city, so we won't even be able to get out of the city by then."

 "Your voices are tired and smoking, also can not ah, or let the fat man over here?" Boge asked from the side.

 "But don't, that guy, every time he recruits, his tail goes up to the sky," Ram Tuo shook his head repeatedly from the side.

 "Before, when I saw him recruiting people, he had several mercenaries with a lot of words follow him, and after he finished his speech, he then had the mercenaries talk about how free and happy they were living in our regiment, and how the dinars were divided after every battle, and how much dinars were distributed," Borg added.

 "I think it's fine, nowadays people only look at whether they are full or not, whether they eat well, and how many dinars they can get, otherwise how can they willingly go on adventures," said Vahan.

 "OK, I'll go get a few people over here," said Borg as he headed for the wall.

 Seeing the skinny teenager who was still eating and drinking by the crowd, Borg said loudly, "Kid, hurry up and get out when you're full, don't think you can keep dawdling here." Saying that, then he called a few people to walk toward the street again.

 "Foolish, all do not have some sense of family and country, fighting bandits, for the country for the people of the great good ah," Ram Tuo kept spitting.

 "The stomach can't even be filled, and still talk about sentiments," Wakhan said with a smile, "we were more or less a bit excessive just now haha."

 "Yes, we did, if it were me, I wouldn't be able to go with us on a hungry stomach for the sake of the country and the people," Zana pounded on the stone wall.

 "You guys, stand up one by one and tell us how we divided the loot, how we divided the dinars, how we ate, what we ate, what we were aiming for, and how we were brave, virtuous, and helped the weak and the poor." Borg said to the men.

 Vahan walked down the stone steps and leaned against the stone wall next to them, looking at the mercenaries.

 The few mercenaries, as if speaking from experience, stood on the stone steps and began to boast. One of the mercenaries also took black bread, jerky, and large pies from the wall, and borrowed a roasted chicken from Radha.

 Several of the men yelled loudly, and after the crowd had gathered around them again, one of them began to focus on the food, drink, and shelter in the mercenary group, waving a few hundred dinars that he had pulled out of the inside of his shirt in his hand. Several others, gulping down black bread, jerky and large cakes, the hand of the roasted chicken in front of the crowd around and around.

 Straight envious onlookers drooled and ran to the Vahan guys to sign up for this mercenary group where every mercenary was as legendary as Antara.

 Just then, a few soldiers wearing armor and holding weapons approached.

 "Recruitment is forbidden here, so get your asses out of here," said the lead soldier.

 "We're willing to take in, they're willing to participate, how come we can't recruit?!" Vahan said to a few soldiers.

 "Master Emir hasn't recruited enough soldiers yet, don't you know that we're at war with the Southern Empire right now?" The lead soldier's tone was firm.

 "You recruit yours, we recruit ours. They can go wherever they want, won't that be enough?!" Vahan was forceful.

 "That's right, it's our freedom to go wherever we want," the onlooking passersby yelled from the sidelines.

 "That doesn't work either, this Asker City is the territory of the Emir's lordship, and if you're not allowed to recruit, you can't recruit." The lead infantryman said, drawing his weapon with.

 "I see what's going on, why can't you recruit?" Zayin and a squad of five men walked through the crowd and approached the crowd. Zayin and the five men in the squad were covered in blood, all holding weapons in their hands and carrying leather armor, swords, and other scavenged loot.

 As soon as Zayin's words fell, the five men in the squad were already in formation, with the soldier with the two-handed sword standing in the center, the two shield soldiers standing on either side, and the two lance soldiers standing on either side of the shield soldiers in an offensive stance.

 Ramtuo, Zana, and Borg had already taken weapons from the side of the city wall and called in a group of mercenaries to surround the few armor-clad and weapon-wielding soldiers on the spot.

 "Slow down, don't be impulsive," Vahan hastily stopped the crowd, and said slowly with the leading soldier, "Is this okay, we don't recruit inside the city, we recruit outside the city gates, and don't delay you guys to go back to deliver your orders."

 "That's fine, but you'd better stay away from the city gates, don't let Master Emil and his steward see it." After saying that, a few Asele soldiers turned around and prepared to go back.