With Valentin, an old hand, leading the way, the player squad had a smooth journey. On the road from Bagnia to the Minisian border, they took in some scenery and were stopped at Minisian checkpoints and by patrols, but they passed through every time without any real trouble.
It was rather unbelievable. There were plenty of Minisian inspections along the way, but none were particularly strict. Even though the people in the carriage looked unsavory and carried weapons, the inspectors all considered that perfectly normal.
And this hadn't happened just once or twice. Every inspection Ye Ao Nai He and the others encountered was the same. Whether at roadside checkpoints or city gates, the Minisians thought they looked like bad news, yet considered it entirely normal.
Apart from charging blatantly unreasonable tolls, they barely inspected the players or their carriage. A casual glance was enough.
After encountering this several times, Ye Ao Nai He was baffled. Was the Rhododendron Mercenary Corps really that famous?
When players had questions, they sought answers themselves. They chatted with Bagnians traveling the same road, asked Minisian shopkeepers along the way for information, and spent a long time observing how other Bagnians dealt with Minisians.
Before long, the players found their answer.
Back when the old king was still on the throne, hiring Bagnians as mercenaries had already become popular in the Minicia Kingdom. There were many reasons to hire them: they were cheap, they lived nearby, and it was a way to win their country over.
But the biggest reason was that Minisians, from top to bottom, were utterly sick of those Bagnian mountain barbarians.
In the reign of the king before the old king, or perhaps even earlier, the Bagnians had always headed east under their king's leadership every year to raid Minisian