After doing his morning training, Cain prepare to go to the Mercenary Guild today, he will try to recruit some of the veteran one as an instructor to teach his population how to fight or act as a temporary patrol soldier for his territory.
Joining Deus who is already standing by outside his door, Cain go to city centre and find the mercenary guild. The building architecture look old from the outside since it has been around since the time of Vertalis first King and has been renovated multiple times throughout the ages. He has request Bergen to inform Alex Goldman the Guild master in Royal Capital to assemble the available mercenary group in the city.
Entering the guild assembly room, Cain gaze around his surrounding, different from the royal academy, most mercenary are veteran fighter and used to hardship, you cannot show weakness in front of them and they only speak the language of benefit.
Standing in front of the room, Cain can feel their gazes gather around him, some are curious, despise, friendly and even hostile gazes.
"Good day to you all my fellow brother and sister, I am prince Cain; I would like to invite you to work in my territory". As you may know already, I have been granted Verzia territory by the King and I will be glad if you can join me to build this territory together, If you are interested you can tell the Guild master and he will give the list to me next month. I assure you that the payment will not be less than the work in royal capital.
Hearing his serious statement, the mercenaries laugh out loud while shouting jeers.
"Yo Prince Cain, why do you think we want to go to frontier province like Verzia? We prefer a comfy lifestyle in the capital said one of the burly mercenaries.
Cain also answered with a smile, "Of Course, the answer is easy, Money!!!, there are plenty of opportunities to make money, Verzia territory is rife with monsters that you can hunt and you can also find other jobs such as patrolling the territory or gathering ingredients. But if you act like a thug and create a mess in my territory then I will be sure to kill you myself said Cain spreading his murderous intent in the room.
The mercenary is shocked when they feel Cain heavy murderous intent. They don't understand how come a pampered prince who is still only 15-year-old can give out such heavy pressure that even them, a veteran in the battlefield that has seen life and death fight, feel intimidated.
Some powerful mercenary stare at Cain silently, trying to measure Cain Capability. In their experience, someone who can put out a heavy murderous intent is not a simple person.
Douglas, captain of Blue Dragon mercenary come and stand in front of Cain with imposing manner and ask him, "why do you think we will accept your offer?".
Cain shrug his shoulder and said "maybe because I can give you an opportunity to leave your mercenary life and find a stable life, you will not have to worry where to find food on your table for your entire life, if you want to spend the rest of your life in peace you can choose to be a teacher for new recruits in the barrack. You Must know that after I give up the throne what would happen to this kingdom in case something happens to the king."
Hearing Cain answer, Douglas narrowed his eyes while thinking deeply. The mercenary and Deus also look shocked, they know that if the King died a sudden death then an all-out war between Prince Leo and Prince David will erupt in the Kingdom and civil war will ravage the land.
All the smart mercenary know what Cain means and wonder if Cain is planning to kill the King or know some inside information that they don't know about.
Cain really want to subtly invite Douglas to his territory, in his previous life Douglas only come to his territory after the civil war in the kingdom broke out, he has lost all his friends but managed to escape with his wife and daughter. The past Douglas once tell Cain that he regret not leaving his mercenary life behind until it is too late.
The Douglas in front of him looks younger than his memory but still has the same imposing aura. After a deep thought, Douglas hesitated. His wife is pregnant right now and if possible, he really wants to leave his mercenary life behind. As an orphan Douglas wants to make sure that his children can have an intact family that he never had. If he continue living a mercenary life, someday he may found his life ending abruptly in some ancient ruins with no one to inform his family.
"What about the payment?" Said another Captain of the mercenary group,
The payment will depend on the job that you want to take. If I deemed you are useful and not problematic, I can give you the same treatment as the kingdom knight, 1 Gold coin a month.
Hisss… the crowd murmurs among themselves, as a mercenary they don't have fixed income but one gold coins is already enough for a B Class mission reward for a small mercenary group.
If any of you are interested you can inform the guild master and gather at the south gate one month later. I will also build a mercenary guild in my territory so you can try to find any job you like.
Cain exit the Guild and stroll towards the military barracks but Duke Groms men prevented him from entering.
The Duke has informed the King that Prince Cain cannot recruit experienced military officer and can only bring new recruit.
"Does the Duke say how many Rune Knight candidate can I recruit?" said Cain. He already expected that the Duke will prevent him from poaching the military veteran to prevent future trouble.
As a strategic resources, Rune knight is very rare and the amount of rune knight in the kingdom is only around 100 people since it takes a lot of money and resources to buy or catch monster and bound it with mana crystal in the Kingdom Contract Chamber.
"The duke said that you cannot recruit a rune knight from the kingdom military even the trainee knight." answered the soldier.
Sigh, just my luck… it seems Duke Grom is not as stupid as he looks or someone advised him to prevent me from growing a military force.
I can only rely on the power of my true rune to see the people potential in my territory one by one.
Since in this world the people don't have the ability to know other people status, the most basic way to know a person can become a rune knight is to select a bunch of military elites and try to bound their soul to a wyvern, a standard ride for Vertalis Kingdom Rune Knight. If the contract failed this means that the person don't have the potential to be a rune knight and goes to normal military branches such as infantry, cavalry and others.
But Cain know better, by using his true rune power, he knows that every person has different Rune power since birth but the amount varied. A wyvern cost 60 rune cost that means it is possible for a person with lower than 60 to be a rune knight and bind contract with low rune cost monster such as hellhound which only cost 30 rune power. According to Cain previous life experience, rune power can grow depending on the person age, ability, experience and fortuitous encounter.