As I was almost sleeping in the dark room in the hay of the wooden bed I heard someone walking outside of my room and then someone strongly knocked on the door. So I got out from under the cloack that I was using as a cover for the cold and opened the door to two soldiers of the Évora kingdom awaiting for me.
- Are you going the mercenary the inns owner talked about ?
- I'm not a mercenary but I can also work as one. What do you need ?
- Then come with us to the castle right now , it will all be explained by our commander
- Can't we go tomorrow ?, it's in the middle of the night and it's snowing right now
- You want the job or not, you have 10 minutes to pack your things and come !
Once we were reaching the castle I noticed that not a single one of the outdoor lanterns were lit on and I had a eerie felling about this job and that my horse (kuro) was uneasy and not responding well to my commands
Passing trough the gate I noticed that about 50 other people were also there, so I got off my horse and put her in the mew among other horses and went to the crowd with the two soldiers. Then someone got up on a ark and demanded attention
- I'm Lucious the commander of the Évora kingdom and all of you mercenaries are here for a job, and it is a simple one, the king prohibited anyone from going to the underground royal dungeon, because of some kind of monster that is attracted by light, even though no one saw it but him, your task shall be killing this monster and bringing his carcass, the mercenary who succeeds will be awarded
150 evorian pounds.
I was impressed by the huge amount of money they offered as a reward, I could live without working for a year with that, yet I knew that something was off.
Then a landsknechte at my side asked:
- why such a big reward for a simple job ? There is something that you're not telling us ?
- we are offering such a reward because we need it done fast. Is that enough ?
Reaching the trapdoor of the dungeon I tried to focus my hearing to maybe catch the sound of the creature but I couldn't hear anything because of the mercenary's chattering so loudly.
When they opened the trapdoor nothing could be seen downstairs, it was pitch black, total darkness. So most of the mercenary lighted torches or lamps and divided themselves in groups and some stayed alone. The landsknechte from earlier asked me to pair up with him, i thought it was strange but I accepted because he didn't seem like a bad person and it would be safer anyway.