Unlike Durandal, Rita did not care at all about darkness or decay. She knew her role very clearly: all she needed to do was obey orders and complete her missions.
After parting ways with Durandal, Rita found a cloth sack, filled it with gold coins, then carried it straight toward the Empire's military office.
However, Rita did not head for the nobles' military office, but toward the commoners' district.
After all, neither she nor Durandal were nobles of this Empire, and neither held any title. They could only come to a place like this first.
When Rita arrived at her destination, she found many commoners lined up there. Quite a few of them wore strange clothing. Presumably... they were people from small villages outside the Imperial Capital, hoping to make something of themselves here.
There was no shortage of people with such thoughts in this world, but things were often not so simple.
"Get out! A pauper like you wants to join the army?!" As Rita approached, she happened to see two burly men grab a scrawny boy and throw him out.
"Damn it! What's so great about it? I don't even care!" The boy got up, picked up his bundle, and glared furiously at the military recruitment office before him.
In the end, he could only leave unwillingly.
Unlike the final years of empires in other worlds, this Empire did not lack so-called soldiers. Even enlistment had limited slots, and sometimes one even had to pay money to get in.
Although the benefits of joining the army were not particularly good, it was still one of the ways for commoners to climb upward, even if it was extremely difficult.
Rita watched the boy leave unwillingly but did not pay much attention to it... Then she looked at the long