Leaving the Monoghriad Forest and headed straight to the East, there is a Kingdom named Latricia, home to some of the most beautiful and prosperous agricultural cities with many mysterious places to discover, Latricia is the second largest kingdom on the entire continent, but in terms of resources, Latricia is considered to be the richest, with the Kingdom of Highlios being the second but placed first for the largest kingdom.
And at Latricia's Capital, Larim, more specifically the Finance Minister office...
"Sir Julian, we got a report from one of the guards that is patrolling the city"
The man that is known as the person that governs finance and taxation all over the city, is called Julian Istem Genesee, he is a noble from the Genesee family who is granted a baron title from the king himself.
Julian was signing off some document papers about other reports that had came in to his office, but it seems like there is always a new one.
"What is it?" Julian said to his secretary.
His secretary then gave him a paper containing a message, to put it shortly, one of the patrolling guards on the city accidentally overheard an adventurer's conversation, the guard heard the adventurer said something about how there is a cave full of mithrils at the inner part of Monoghriad forest, the guard thought that this could be a huge opportunity if it were found to be true.
Julian looked at the message for a while, he was a bit skeptical about it since it involves with the Monoghriad Forest, a highly dangerous area that is called the Monster's breeding grounds by many people, but if what the guard that wrote this report said is true, then a cave full of mithrils would bring a great fortune and resources to the kingdom.
'An ingot of mithril alone costs about 1 large gold coin.. And this guard said that there is a cave at the inner part of Monoghriad forest that is full of mithrils?!'
'It is a bit unbelievable indeed, it could be that adventurer was lying..'
After thinking for a while, Julian decided to ask for his secretary's opinion.
"Tiel, what do you think about this report? Is it true?"
"Im not quite sure sir, at first i was also a bit skeptical about it, after all there are less people who have reached the inner part of Monoghriad forest and survived than those who have obtained the Duke title— But if we're talking about possibility, i believe if what written in there is true, then the amount of profit that we would gain will be incredibly massive."
"... What kinds of monsters are in the inner part of that forest?" Julian asked.
"Based off of the words that came from adventurers that have survived from that place, they saw Quadra-Horn Elder Boar, Wyvern, Griffin, Chimera, and Two-Headed Giant Snake, there are more monsters in there but thats as far as i could remember."
"I remember you said that a single Knight is equal to a B-Rank adventurer right?"
Tiel tilted his head in confusion.
"Yes?"
"Then what about Special Knights?"
"Sir Julian, you're not thinking about trying to mobilize the forces of our kingdom right?"
"Of course i do, think about it Tiel, with how many profit we would gain, i think its worth checking."
"But sir, even if our knights strength combined can defeat the monsters that lived at the inner part of the forest, that doesn't mean they wouldn't get injured!"
"Are you doubting our knights power?"
Julian then stood up from his seat and approached Tiel before standing right infront of him, Julian's height different between Tiel was too noticable, Tiel's upper part of his head only reached to Julian's neck, so the intimidating aura that came from Julian was threatening for Tiel.
"You do know that it wouldn't work on me right?" Tiel said with a straight face.
"...Right, you're always like this, alright let me say it again, listen, what im seeing here is that there is a high risk and high reward opportunity given to us, if what the report said was true, then it would be extremely advantageous for our kingdom, you and i know exactly how rare mithril is, and a cave full of that rare minerals is out there, waiting for someone to find it."
"But sir, mobilizing our military for something ambiguous is way too dangerous, what if it was a trap set up by other kingdoms, we would never know, and once our military has weakened, wouldn't it be a perfect moment for enemy to strike?"
Tiel's answer struck a never on Julian's body and he went quiet for a moment, Tiel then continue talking..
"If we're just going to check to see if the information was true or not, why don't we just hire mercenaries for it–
His words suddenly got cut off by Julian's who began talking back to him.
"As if i would trust them, did you know how cunning mercenaries can be? As soon as they saw a more valuable offer infront of them, they wouldn't spare a single thought before abandoning whatever task they were given with– I bet if we hired those sly foxes, not only we wouldn't hear anything back from them, the mithril cave would also be empty by the time we found it ourselves."
"If that's what you're thinking, then–
"And don't even start with sending knights to aid the mercenaries so that they can be captured incase of a betrayal– Those fuckers are people who have grown in a harsh condition, they will always have some tricks up their sleeves, once they saw the mithril cave, they will probably stab the knights from behind or kill them when fighting a monster before fleeing from the scene with all of the resources."
"Sir Julian, not all mercenaries are like that, there are some trusted mercenaries that values honor over wealth, we can ask some adventurers or people that have hired mercenaries before so that we can see who is the most trusted mercenaries out of them all.."
Julian is starting to get tired of arguing with Tiel, he brushed his face and then offered one last thing to tiel.
"How about this, since we're not gonna reach an agreement anytime soon, i'll ask this one last offer— 5 Special Knights, 15 Normal Knights, and 5 Mercenaries."
"...That's.."
"We have almost a hundred Special Knights in this city, at first i was planning to send 30 Special Knights, but im being kind to you here, and also i realized what you're saying hold some truth to it, so i changed my mind."
Silence filled the room and both Julian and Tiel were on a stalemate, they stared at eachother, waiting for answers, after what seem to be 30 seconds of silence, Tiel finally speaks..
"sigh.. Fine, i can't help but agree to that.. But do you think 20 people would be enough to traverse through that forest?"
"I think its enough."
Julian then let go of Tiel and goes back to his seat with a smile.
"Tell the Military Minister about our request."
"Yes, right away sir..."
***
A few days later...
At the West Gate of the city, just outside of the wall, a group of knights in armour was standing with eachother in a straight line, among the knights, there are also a few different one that wore special armor with the Kingdom's symbol at their chest, those are the Special Knights, and beside the two of them, there are also mercenaries that looks muscular and mysterious, some of them wore thick robes and hood to cover their faces and body, these people carries a dagger and are trained with stealth arts, while the other ones carries a sword or a magic staff with them and had less cover on their body.
"WE WILL START THE EXPEDITION TO THE INNER PART OF MONOGHRIAD FOREST! BE CAUTIOUS FOR THE ENTIRE RIDE! BECAUSE AS YOU ALL KNOW, YOUR LIFE IS AT RISK IN THIS EXPEDITION!! SO KEEP THAT IN MIND AND DON'T STRAY AWAY FROM THE GROUP! UNDERSTAND!?"
One of the special knights stood infront of everyone, he is Carfeld, the leader of this mission.
"YES!!"
"YES!!!"
"YES!"
Everyone shouted, obeying Carfeld's leadership.
"VERY WELL, LETS GO!"