Chapter 105: Civil War
They were tired after wandering through the city market.
Looking around, most of the surrounding shops sold Spartan-style weapons, armor, and fitness equipment. There were almost no clothing stores or dessert shops that girls particularly liked.
So Medea became a little listless and found a restaurant to sit down in.
In Spartan restaurants, apart from some dark dishes, the only edible options were probably roasted lamb ribs, cheese balls, and wine.
Ordering one of each, Medea put down the menu and looked at Asker with narrowed eyes.
Staring.
“Is there something on my face?” Asker asked, “Why are you looking at me?”
Medea said, “Be quiet, I’m reading your mind.”
Asker: …
“Did you read the answer you wanted?” After a moment, Asker asked boredly.
“I did.” Medea said with a grin.
“Ah! They’re eating together!” On the street outside the restaurant, Peggy stared at the two people sitting by the window, so angry that she almost broke her teeth.
“Stop making noise!” Nuo hurriedly reminded her, “The passers-by are looking over!”
“No!” Peggy said and was about to rush out, but was stopped by Nuo. “Look.”
The two girls looked closely and saw that the intimate scene at the table inside the restaurant that made them feel so uncomfortable was over.
“Haha, Captain Asker, I didn’t expect to see you here again.” Andrea, who had walked over from the opposite table, laughed heartily, followed by Hermann. “We just ordered too, mind if we share a table?”
Medea really wanted to say “mind,” but Asker had already spoken:
“No problem.”
So Andrea and Hermann sat down at the table, while Medea moved her seat closer to Asker with a cold expression.
“Captain Asker,” Andrea flattered, “You’ve really returned fully loaded this time. Although Azure Longsword only has nine people, each one is an elite. To achieve such a beautiful battle record in this anomaly, even we Iron Cross are deeply impressed.”
As expected of a leader, this guy really knows how to talk. Asker thought to himself, knowing that the other party could say such nice things because, firstly, he no longer held any grudges, and secondly, he needed something from him.
“Then 340 silver marks.” Asker said bluntly.
Andrea and Hermann were stunned for a moment, then realized that he was quoting a price for the Snow Monster materials.
Wait, didn’t we already agree on 380 silver marks per piece when you saved us from the avalanche?
Of course, both were veterans in negotiations and wouldn’t be tactless enough to ask why he lowered the price. Andrea sighed inwardly and said with a smile:
“Good! Captain Asker is indeed straightforward. We Iron Cross will remember this favor!”
“It’s nothing.” Asker waved his hand. “Just making friends.”
Pfft! Medea, who had been struggling to keep a straight face, finally couldn’t help but laugh.
This laugh suddenly startled Hermann, and he quickly nudged Andrea under the table.
Andrea originally wanted to offer a few more enthusiastic compliments, praising the other party’s straightforwardness and generosity in lowering the price. But after being nudged by Hermann, he immediately realized something was wrong.
After thinking carefully for a moment, his heart began to churn:
Damn it! 340 silver marks, isn’t that the highest price we were originally willing to pay for the Snow Monster materials?
Buying the materials from them at the highest price, and I still have to thank them for lowering the price? What kind of logic is this!
Before Andrea could recover, Hermann had already figured it out.
It was a fact that the girls of Azure Longsword had saved everyone from the avalanche, so Andrea raising the price to 380 silver marks, the premium was naturally to repay their life-saving grace.
But now that they said no premium was needed, then the favor of saving their lives wasn’t repaid. Perhaps the other party had other requests for the Iron Cross and wanted to use this favor to exchange for something else, so they took the initiative to say no price increase was needed.
As for Andrea’s subsequent flattery, it was purely because his brain hadn’t caught up.
The price of 340 marks was ridiculously expensive, okay? In the normal black market, Frost I materials usually only cost around 200 marks.
This guy actually took the other party’s price reduction as a favor, his reaction time was really a bit long.
Andrea realized his mistake and was so embarrassed that he could barely speak. Hermann saw this and took the initiative to smooth things over.
“To be honest, 340 marks isn’t cheap either. If it weren’t for the fact that we Iron Cross urgently need it, we definitely wouldn’t agree to this price.”
“Captain Asker, if I’m not mistaken, you actually know our purpose for collecting this batch of materials, right?” He asked with a hint of probing, smiling. “I’m personally curious, how did you obtain this information?”
Asker didn’t speak, just casually pointed at Medea.
Hermann was stunned for a moment, then burst into tears inwardly.
This mind-reading ability is too unfair!
The food was served by the waiter, and Asker began to focus on enjoying the roasted meat.
Medea was angry and didn’t speak, just fiercely cut the meat and bones on her plate with her knife and fork, as if it were Asker’s face.
Andrea and Hermann had also ordered. At this time, in front of them were a plate of grilled goat meat, a bowl of goat milk, and a plate of mysterious black liquid.
“Did you order this?” Andrea pointed at the plate of black liquid.
“No, I remember I didn’t order this.” Hermann was a little curious, scooped up a spoonful with a soup spoon, and put it in his mouth.
The moment it entered his mouth, his expression almost contorted.
The fishy smell of pig’s blood, the sour taste of aged vinegar, mixed with the thick saltiness of who knows how much salt, made him immediately feel the urge to vomit.
However, he endured it and didn’t spit it out, just gritted his teeth and held it in his mouth, trying to raise his eyebrows and relax his cheeks, putting on a satisfied expression of “very delicious” and “makes me feel warm all over,” and pretended to scoop a second spoonful.
“Is it that good?!” Andrea observed his expression and immediately became interested. He took another bowl, filled it halfway for himself, and then brought it to his lips.
Seeing him raise the soup bowl, Hermann quickly spat out the liquid in his mouth, grabbed the goat milk on the table, and began to rinse his mouth.
“Pfft!” As soon as the dark soup entered his mouth, Andrea sprayed it out violently. Asker reacted quickly, moving his and Medea’s plates away, so they weren’t hit by the mysterious liquid.
“Sorry!” Andrea coughed and said, then immediately looked at the table, searching eagerly as if looking for an antidote. “Where’s the goat milk? Where’s that big bowl of goat milk?”
“Ah, I finished it.” Hermann put down the bowl expressionlessly, it was already empty.
“I’ll fucking kill you!” Andrea lost his temper for a moment, grabbed his collar and stood up, but couldn’t help but turn his head and gag again.
“After this anomaly ends, does Iron Cross have any plans?” Asker interrupted the two’s farce.
Andrea, unable to bear the urge to vomit, rushed to the toilet. Hermann, having recovered, thought for a moment and explained slowly:
“After purchasing your Snow Monster materials, we will immediately head to Lübeck and hand these materials over to the Iron Cross headquarters.”
“Ah, that’s great.” Asker said with a smile. “The next destination for our Azure Longsword is also the Holy Solomon Empire. Why don’t we travel together? After all, the Holy Roman Empire is a bit chaotic right now. With two mercenary groups together, we can look out for each other.”
Hermann immediately understood, this was to use the reputation of the Iron Cross mercenary group to reduce the risks they might encounter on the journey. But he hadn’t heard of any chaos in the country…
Just as he was puzzled, he saw an Iron Cross mercenary hurriedly enter the restaurant, quickly scanning the room. Seeing Hermann here, he quickly ran over and whispered urgently to Hermann:
“Vice-Captain Hermann, a civil war is about to break out in the Empire!”
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