Everyone had their eyes on the protagonist, who had achieved fame and fortune and won the beauty, while those lower-tier mercenaries who died in battle without even leaving their names—who would care about those insignificant people?
The romantic stories were never anything but fantasies for those lower-tier mercenaries and Adventurers present.
More of the lower-tier mercenaries had nothing to do with the protagonists in the Minstrel's tales.
The vast majority at the bottom of the mercenary class either died on the mission road, got their heads chopped off by the Thief loitering in the wilderness, or were devoured by fierce wild beasts and monsters, without leaving even their names.
Those slightly luckier might save some money, buy a few barren fields in the countryside with their injuries, and rely on teaching young people or introducing Mercenary Apprentices to the Mercenary Corps as they grow older.
