that’s why these stories always default to ‘adventurer’, because the only actual work available to an unbound stranger in a feudal economy is unaccountable violence-dispenser, slave, or criminal.

someone shows up without family ties, guild ties, merchant ties, political ties… they’re automatically the lowest rung of society and will have to rely on charity until they could raise their station & acquire those ties through wealth or political clout—and the best way to get both of those in lieu of having anyone to ‘put in a good word for you’ is violence.