King of Mercenaries Chapter 2

Marin was combing through these memories. However, he was truly lamenting the previous Marin’s terrible intellect. Who tries to catch deer in heavy armor, something that even light cavalry may not be able to do…

Suddenly, Marin thought – this idiot didn’t swap with his soul from the 21st century, right? Thinking of the possibility, he shuddered…

If such an idiot touched his body, what would happen? Wouldn’t he be cheated until he had no clothes left?

However, after some thought. Marin felt that it was hopeless to return back now. Any past connections were no longer his concern.

As he was thinking, another wave of immense hunger hit him. Marin finally remembered – this body had not eaten for two days…

Struggling to stand up, Marin saw his stuff placed not far away. His lance and his horse still grazing leisurely.

This horse’s name was Karl. It was given by Old Hoffman to Marin during an early age. From when he was 13, the original Marin had taken care of this horse. Including shoveling manure, training it, and caring for it. Since then, it’s been three years.

So, when the original Marin fell on the ground, Karl was rather obedient and stayed around to chew on some grass.

Horses can eat grass to quench their hunger. But it’s a shame that ordinary people can’t eat grass… The hungry blonde, Marin, encountered his first challenge, food.

Currently, he was wearing fifteen kilograms of armor. This included a breastplate and a clunky helmet. After all, the Hoffman family was considered very poor. There was only one full set of Gothic plate armor for either Old Hoffman or Adler to wear. Besides the breastplate and helmet, there was no protection for the legs and feet. As for the warhorse, Karl, there is no iron horse armor. Rather some simple wooden armor made out of oak boards. Then brushed with a layer of black paint, it looked like real armor from afar. Albeit, this wooden horse armor actually did provide some protection, to a certain extent.

Back to the main issue. Marin’s hunger constantly assaulted his nerves, his body and brain reminding him – food….

But does he go to find food? Marin became desperate. Once he took this body, it had not eaten a morsel in two days. Marin had inherited the original owner’s riding and martial art prowess. Along with his experience in street fighting, his ability wasn’t too bad. But the problem is that his body is already exhausted.

“Hmm, should I kill the horse?” Marin looked at the Karl that was still chewing on some grass.

Karl seemed to sense some foreboding, but only raised his head and gave Marin a glance.

“No, I can’t. I’m a wandering knight. What’s a knight without a horse? To medieval knights, their horse is like a second lifeline. So, whether it be killing the horse, or selling it. All of them were not options Marin could take.

“But I’m so hungry!” Marlin cried out.

Looking at Karl, eating grass with a very satisfied look. Marin licked his lips.

“Maybe, I can eat some grass……”

Thinking of the military special forces and what they eat during field survival training, Marin decided to challenge himself.

Then he crawled up to Karl …. then prepared to fight the horse for its grass.

Why would Marin fight the horse for grass? Whenever horses are grazing, it is said that they generally only like to eat delicious juicy blades of grass. As long as it wasn’t too hungry, it would typically refuse to eat the substandard grass.

Marin looked at Karl with his weird horse-like smirk on its face. He could infer that the cluster of grass is indeed very delicious. Then, Marin hurriedly snatched a few pieces of grass and stuffed it into his mouth.

“Ah! Pah! – so unpalatable … … why do you like it so much?” Marin grew angry and glared at Karl. But of course, Karl being a horse, didn't care and continued munching on his grass.

The grass probably is really delicious, but only for specific herbivores. As for the human – since when do they eat grass?

But the grass had a strange taste. When Marin initially stuck the grass in his mouth, a vaguely familiar taste assaulted him. That feeling it was like green tea leaves.

Spitting out the grass out of his mouth, Marin remembered that the Red Army sometimes ate grass roots. However, he never recalled them eating grass leaves. So, he changed his strategy and started to eat some roots.

The taste of the grass roots really was better than the leaves. At least it didn’t taste so strange. And so, Marin ate heaps of it. After that, he took out the copper pot, and filled it with water out of the creek and drank it.

After resting for a while, plus the energy brought by food, Marin’s physical strength recovered a lot. Then he began to consider the next survival problem.

Whether it is the former Marin, or the current Marin, they were very principled people. So, Marin was not willing to resort to roadside robbery as some fallen wandering knights did. Thus, he has only two options – either hunting for a living or traveling back to Hoffman Manor for help.

However, Marin still had some fear about meeting the Old Hoffman and his mother. If they saw the massive change in him, then they could notify the Church, and Marin could easily be burned at the stake. During this time, it doesn’t require evidence for the Church to burn people to death. So, after much deliberation, hunting was the only option left.

In fact, there was a third choice. For example, you can choose to find a big lord and swear loyalty to him. However, only Marin was only sixteen, his body was still developing. He was neither tall or strong enough. His current height was only about 1.7 meters. In this era, this would be considered normal for a German. But when placed in the category of knights, he was still very short and thin. Mainly because in this era, the common people lacked nutrition. Naturally, they would grow to be shorter. But a child of a knight family, from a small age, would have eaten enough nutritious food that they generally didn’t grow to be short.

Big aristocrats pay particular attention to the pomp. Preferring tall knights with large muscles. With his current physical stature, it would be difficult to curry some noble’s fancy. The option being the Emperor, who should now be anxious to recruit mercenaries. After all, Marin had no chance competing against actual knights, but if the recruitment was of general mercenaries, the chances were much better.

Eventually, Marin decided – he will hunt for his food, clothing, and travel expenses on his journey to Vienna to meet the Emperor. During this time, the Italian War was about to start. The German and French forces will clash at Italy. Finally, his hobby of internet reading would come in handy.

Chapter end

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