A Side - There's Something to See (4)

At first, there was a lot of interest in the request. Over five hundred adventurers and mercenaries applied in only three days. That's how enticing the reward was. Ten gold coins could support a family for nearly twenty five human years. For the majority of races, that was multiple lifetimes of wealth. Of course, not all of them met our minimum requirements, and there were a good bunch who tried to scam me in one form or another. Still, after filtering those out, a little under two hundred applicants remained. If we hired just a third of them, Todd Barony could easily weather the incoming crisis.

But as soon as we mentioned that they would be dealing with a beast stampede, most of the applicants turned us down with various excuses. One adventurer who bragged about traveling the entire country in a year said that the two week journey was too far. Another mercenary who was visiting the city for a job declined because of their 'family' living in Edith. And how could I forget the one who said it seemed too tiring to deal with? Even with my knights, I could barely hold back from slicing her head off with a wind blade.

"In the end, we only managed to secure fourteen recruits," I reported to the Viscount At best, it bought us a couple more days, a week at most. Not enough to reach the hundred day threshold.

"I see. Do you have any other plans in mind?"

"Unfortunately, most of them involve mages."

"How many?"

"At least two hundred who could take down a low-ranked beast."

"I assume you understand how unlikely that is in this day and age," the Viscount lightly chided.

"I am aware." If only mages weren't so weak...

Five years ago, mana was much more abundant than it was today. Back then craftsman and blacksmith would craft objects straight out of a novel, with spells that could easily decimate an entire country. Even the most ill-read, obtuse mage could wipe out a mid-ranked beast with a flick of the wrist.

But after the moon shattered, everything changed. The mana started to pool up in different locations, making it much harder to use. For those artifacts, they became impossible to use due to the high cost. As for spells, it took a lot more effort and concentration to cast even the lowest class.

As such, nowadays, the average mage could hold their own against a single low-ranked beast, not much different from an adventurer or mercenary. In fact, I would say they were even worse as they needed time to cast the spells.

I should know, I was a mage myself.

"Well then, what about training up ordinary citizens? How long does it take to have them hold off a low-ranked beast?"

"More than a season, even if we split them into groups."

"What about simple long-ranged weapons? Crossbows, perhaps?"

"It still requires training to aim and handle the recoil. I doubt we would have enough in any case."

"Is there no way we can evacuate the town in time?"

"If we could camouflage the residents, possibly. But that kind of large-scale magic is impossible right now. Even escorting out some of the citizens could expose the rest to unexpected death."

Our knights had joined in as well, but we were still getting nowhere. No matter how many ideas we threw out, there were just as many issues that made them nonviable.

"Could we not enforce conscription in Edith to fight for our town?" one of my knights suggested.

"Hmm... that idea does have some merit," the Viscount conceded. "But would they not desert their post in the thick of battle? They have no desire or belief to defend our town."

Once again, we were back to square--

"Then, why not turn them into hero?"