Chapter 217: Sacrifice (1)
"Stark, don’t look so tense."
"Right? This is just a simple escort mission, it’s easy money."
"He’s not even going to a dangerous place, so I don’t know why he’s willing to pay this much. But since he’s willing to spend, there’s no reason for us not to take this money."
The adventurers that accepted this mission all looked carefree since they all thought that this would be an easy mission.
If I didn’t have my doubts about the middle aged man, I would have thought the same.
After all, this was an escort mission that took a very easy route and there was no way that we would actually be in danger.
But I knew that this escort mission wasn’t that simple.
The middle aged man had used the mind control spell, that was not a spell that just anyone could use. Only those that had specially trained in a certain kind of magic would be able to use this kind of power.
Or they would have to form a kind of contract with a certain being.
If I had to guess, it was most likely the latter...
It didn’t seem like there was anything that was going to happen with the way that the middle aged man carried on. He didn’t even bother talking to the adventurers even though he had spent quite a bit of money hiring them.
The only one that he talked to was me, but I didn’t really want to talk to him since he kept trying to use his mind control to take control of me.
But in the end, I wanted to keep him from getting suspicious of me, so I had no choice but to speak with him.
It was just that when he did speak to me, it really felt like there was something that he wanted from me.
It was different from how the women looked at me.
It was as if he saw me as something delicious or precious that he could offer up.
I wasn’t certain why he was looking at me like this, but it wasn’t hard to come up with some guesses. After all, there were only a few reasons why he could be looking at me like this in the first place.
The other thing to note was that even though he said that he was a merchant, the boxes that he actually had in his carriage didn’t have a single item in it. A merchant that didn’t have any merchandise, it was clear that he wasn’t what he said he was.
After traveling for a bit, the merchant suddenly came to a stop and said, "Let’s stop here and camp out."
This time, the adventurers couldn’t help feeling that something was off.
That was because it was still the middle of the day and the merchant was already suggesting that they camp out.
So one of them took out a map and said, "If we continue for a bit longer, we’ll be able to arrive at a village not far from here. That place should have an inn which will be much more comfortable."
The merchant just said with a smile, "It’s rare for me to come out like this, so I was hoping to have a chance to camp out. I hope that you will not mind this one selfish request."
The adventurers didn’t seem happy about this since they didn’t want to have to sleep outside, but they didn’t say anything in the end. After all, this merchant was the client and he was paying them quite a bit.
Even if they wanted to say that it was dangerous, there wasn’t anything that they could say since this was a relatively safe area.
In the end, they could only hold it back as they agreed to camping out with the merchant.
Once that was settled, the adventurers did what they could to set up camp while the merchant relaxed.
After all, the merchant was their client still, so it wasn’t as if they could make him do anything.
"He must be one of those people from a rich family that is out for an experience."
"Right, he must be trying to experience what it’s like being a normal merchant since he never had to work a day in his life."
"What can we do about it? It isn’t as if money is easy to earn. At least this is better than a job where we would have to fight something dangerous."
The adventurers complained under their breaths while they were setting up the camp, making sure that the merchant wouldn’t be able to hear them.
In the end, they couldn’t do anything but set up the camp for the merchant.
During all of this, I was paying close attention to what the merchant was doing to see if he would try anything. But it didn’t seem like the merchant was planning anything with the way that he walked around camp.
From time to time, it seemed like he wanted to do a few things like he was helping set up the camp. It was just that he clearly never had this kind of experience before with the way that he failed at everything that he did.
While the adventurers didn’t get angry with him on the surface, it was clear that they were losing patience with him.
In the end, the merchant said, "Let me make it up to you by cooking you a meal."
The adventurers had bitter smiles as they agreed to this.
It looked like they thought that they would have to suffer through no food with how they looked at the merchant while he cooked.
But in the end, they were wrong.
"What is this delicious smell?"
It turned out that the merchant was good at one thing, which was cooking.
The problem with the food that he cooked for them...
"Ah, why am I so sleepy?"
It didn’t take long after they ate the food that they lost consciousness.
I also fell unconscious, but that was a choice on my part.
I wanted to see where the merchant would go with this.