Chapter 50: Escort

After resting for three days, the “Red oath” came again to the guild to get new hunter quest.

During those three days, as Guild master expected, rumor about Abbott Merchant Association begin to spread. For example: “Don’t acept Rock Lizard’s request from Abbott”, “He said he will buy it with 15 small gold coins”, “But I hear he only pay 60% or less value”, “He said the requested item is defective”, “But I look at the Rock Lizard myself, it was in perfect condition”, “I heard that the guild bought Rock Lizard for 20 small gold coins, if we have anything we better sell it to the guild”.

Can’t find a mean to supply, that merchant himself came over to meet us.

And Pauline told him

“We already sold it to the guild with 20 small gold coins. At that time, you could buy it with 15 small gold coins. The guild also said there was no defective” (Pauline)

After that, he had no choice but go home.

In ordinary business, Rock Lizard is good purchased for about 25 to 28 small gold coins each. After that merchant will divide into parts and sold in total more than 40 small gold coins. If he purchase with 15 small gold coins like request, he will earn 25 gold coins for each Lizard, equivalent to 250.000 Japanese yen. If he know that we have not only 3 but actually 26 of them, he would have been more regret. In the end, he reap what he sows.

And from now, five Rock Lizards are issued for sale from the guild every week. And we also learned that Abbott will not able purchase from the guild. If he want, he has no choice buy buy from market, but that also mean he won’t get any profit.

“Well, I’ll look for the next quest.”  (Rena)

Agreed with Rena, everyone’s coming to the request board.

And after a few minutes checking, Rena is interested in 1 quest.

“U~n …”  (Rena) (う～ん…)

“What happened?”  (Mile)

Mile called out to Rena who is pondering in front of the request board.

“It is this request, but I think that the request fee is a bit too good, I wonder if there are any circumstances …”  (Rena)

「Escort request: 9 days trip to Amuros and back, 1 day is free time at Amuros. Require C rank or higher. Total require: 12 people. Payment: 24 small gold coins per person. There will be an extra payment for B rank or higher.」

It is a 8 days quest with the risk of life, 24 small gold coins per person. It is 3 small gold coins per day. As a price of life, it sounds uneasy.

However, it’s not like we will have battle or face danger all day. On the contrary, the possibility that nothing happens in the whole process is really high. If it is a dangerous way to be attacked every time, merchant business can not be done in the first place.

But the possibility that merchant group will be attacked by thieves is increased a lot if there is no escort. And even if there’re no thieves, Merchant are still can be attacked by monster. It was natural to hire a number of escorts according to the size of the merchant group to prevent thieves and demons.

However, the market price is a bit cheaper, it should be 2 small gold coins per day.

“For now, let’s confirm it with receptionist first … “  (Rena)

And then Rena then walked towards the receptionist, Mile is panicked and followed after.

“Oh,  that escort request … ?” (Leria)

Leria (レリア: Reria) (I fotgot the name Manshiro using, anyone remember?), the receptionist answered Rena’s question at the reception desk.

“Actually, In the road to Amuros, it comes out …”  (Leria)

“G … ghost, right !” (Rena)

As Mile thought Rena’s voice is strange, she’s looking at Rena.

“Well, I will not say anything unnecessary! Is it really coming out?”  (Rena)

Rena has become somewhat pale.

[Huh? Maybe, Rena …] While Mile is still thinking, Leria keeps speaking to Rena.

“A … Actually, that ghost is …” (Leria)

“Hi~i!”  (Rena + Pauline)

“Will not come out … A … I’m so sorry!” (Leria)

Although it seems to be a light joke, Leria apologizes in a hurry while looking at Lena and Pauline being seriously scared.

“And thieves, thieves! It seems that something has happened in that country, there’re a lot of thieves case happen. Merchants often get attacked, and the goods supply to other countries is reduced. There are a price rising and a lot of demand.

Still because there is a high chance that you will be attacked, you better stop it. Although the danger is many times higher, but the reward is only about 50% more than the normal price, it doesn’t worth to risk your life.”  (Leria)

After hearing a brief story from Leria-san, and Rena left the reception desk.

Thieves are usually not a large group. But if they attack a single carriage by a large number of people, profit will not enough to distribute to all of them. So I can understand that they will either rob small marchant many times or attack a large merchant group. But attack merchant droup with many hunters escort, they will also face the risk being wipe out.

But if the damage from thieves becomes too big, trading will be stagnant. The country and lords will not overlook that. Large scale troops will be organized and eliminated all of them.

Therefore, thieves are often small and rob in wide area to avoid that.

Attually, only those who are unlucky and those who don’t have escort get attacked occasionally. And it will be okay if merchant have enough escort. Because the thieves also pass the tough opponent and aim at the easier prey.

If you are attacked, you will be most likely killed during battle. But if you surrender, you will only get stripped and you will not be harmed. Even if you don’t surrender and fight desperately, in the end you will get killed, and the cargo will also be stolen, which will result in more damage and no earnings.

For the escort quest, if merchant client decided to reduce damage by surrender, the hunters who surrender will not get “achievement of the requested task”. But as their duty has been fully fulfilled, the escorted hunters will get no penalties such as money, and their rewards are paid properly.

But It seems that this time, a big bandit group are came from other countries,  They use tactic like hit and run so the soldiers still don’t find yet their hideout. And the merchants and the escorted hunters also get killed. Perhaps after robbing, they move to another country again before the soldiers was assembled. It also takes time for the lords and countries to move.

“Let’s accept that”  (Rena)

“Huh…” (Mile + Pauline + Maevis)

“If we let Mile wear lovely clothes and sit on the coach, the thieves will surely came.” (Rena)

Three people were surprised at Rena’s decision.

“But, that request is too dangerous …”  (Maevis)

“Oh, and the reward is not balanced against the degree of risk”  (Pauline)

“If we go out again for nine days, our homestay fee will be inconvenient …” (Mile)

Rena becomes angry with the negative words of Pauline, Mevis and Mile.

“You guys, just leave it to me, I already told you guys we will take an escort mission!”  (Rena)

“You certainly said that. Someday we will receive an escort request as well, so if we accept it early, we will get accustomed to escorts. And will have chance to face human opponents.

However, the probability of being attacked is considerably higher than usual, the reward is small in proportion to that, and there are many thieves. I don’t think we should bother to take the quest with so much risk and low rewards. There will be chance to have other escort quest again in the future. And I think that there’s no need to get escort quest so quickly.” (Maevis)

“Well, I think so, too …” (Pauline)

Follow after Maevis-san, Pauline also said her thought

“About that, it  …” (Rena)

Maevis-san keeps speaking.

“Someday, the time will come when we will need to kill a person, but it was time we need to do so, at our own discretion. otherwise we will regret later. Unless we made a choice ourselves, we will not regret it, so I can not convince myself.

Rena, I have a feeling that you aren’t trying to fulfill the duty of escorts but you are trying to accept that request for the purpose of killing thieves, right?

Someday when we need to kill people for the first time should come natural, we shouldn’t force it “coming”.

In addition …” (Maevis)

After pausing for a while, Maevis-san continues the words.

“What with that dress Mile in a cute dress?

It is the last thing you should do in an escort fight. Our primary objective is to make the robbers hesitatite to attack. By showing that there is a girl, not an escort will provoke the robbers to the attack, right? So what would you do if the carriage or goods are damaged? What should you do if the client, coworker, other guards are hurt or died? Why bother doing things that go against the contents of the request and cause things that lead to danger?

Besides, if Mile wear such a dress, Mile will fight without armor when the robbers attack, our opponents are a lot of thieves, and it was our first time battle with human. Do you think about it throughly?“ (Maevis)

Maevis-san cast the last word on Rena who stands silently and falls.

“… Why are you so impatient about this, Rena?” (Maevis)

Rena kept silent for a few seconds, but suddenly she ran away.

“Rena …” (Maevis + Pauline + Mile)

At the corner of the guild, the three people of “Red oath” were standing there without a words.

Rena came back at dinner time.

But she didn’t say anything, just keep silent and have dinner.

“… ” (Rena)

Maevis-san called out to Lena who continues to eat dishes silently without talking anything.

“Rena …” (Maevis)

“…” (Rena)

Rena who continues to eat silently ignoring Maevis-san.

“We already received that escort request, so we can’t oversleep because our departure is tomorrow morning.” (Maevis)

“Bu fu ~a” (sound of cough food/drink when surprised)

“Gyā ~a~a!, that’s dirty, Rena-san!” (Mile)

“A a~a, my rice is a~a!” (Maevis)

Mile and Maevis are screaming. Paulin had evacuated her plate firmly for some reason.

“Ah, but you said we won’t accept that request …” (Rena)

“Fu wa wa, that is a lie!” (Maevis)

Rena-san somehow become desperate and she keep staring at Meavis-san.

“No, I didn’t say that, I just consider the pros and cons and said we shouldn’t accept it.

And, as Rena was gone before we reconsidered it, we just reached a conclusion that we could review and accept with the three remaining people, so how was that?“ (Maevis)

Rena-san still keeps looking at the Maevis-san and said.

“After telling all those things… So, what happened with your pros and cons ?“ (Rena)

“Oh, there’s no problem, as a result of various considerations we have reached the conclusion that it’s still within the acceptable range” (Maevis)

“What with that!” (Rena)

Rena who suddenly felt on her knees. And from the behind, she was poking on her shoulder, and when she’s looking back. It was Reni-chan who smiled and gave out a wooden tub with water and a rag. (meaning: clean up, okay ?)

“We’re sorry” (Mile + Rena + Pauline + Maevis)

Back to that Morning, after Rena ran away from them in the guild, Mile told everyone.

“No matter how you see, there must be something happened to Rena-san before that make her behave like that.

And even if we stop Rena-san for now, she will not happy or accept it.

If we do such a thing, our party might start fall apart. And if Rena-san will do it sooner or later, I think it will be better if she do it when we are there. We need to know about her problem first before we can help her, after all she is our comrade in the 「Red Oath」” (Mile)

After thinking for a while, Maevis-san said.

“Let’s check for more details about that request for now.” (Maevis)

Then we went back to Reception desk again and we decided to meet with the client and listen to the story.

Fortunately, it’s morning so the time was sufficient.

“I see, so there was such a circumstance … If so, can we do something like this?” (Maevis) 「成る程、そういう事情でしたか……。ならば、こういう事はやっても構いませんか？」

“Huh? no, it’s okay even if you do such a thing …” (Merchant A) 「え？ いや、こちらとしては助かるが、いいのかね、そんな事をして貰っても……」

“Then, come this way …” (Merchant B) (その代わり、ここを、こう)

“Uhm, about the budget …” (Merchant A) 「ええっ！ いや、しかし予算が……」

“But if we fail, we won’t get anything, right?” (Pauline) 「でも、失敗したら何にもなりませんよね？」

“U~n, let’s discuss thing first” (Merchant A) 「う～ん、参ったなぁ……」

“Instead, why do you want to do such a thing?” (Merchant B) 「その代わり、こんなのはどうですか？」

“Well, don’t worry about it” (Maevis)

“Yes, it is okay” (Pauline)

“If you say so. The departure schedule is delayed because we waited until the escort gathers, so I’d like to start meeting at once, is it okay?“ (Merchant A)

“No problem, our「Red Oath」can start at any time.” (Maevis)

Before noon of the day, we rented the meeting room of the guild, we discussed with two men and three girls about our escort quest.

Having a daily dose of Mile or Arge is nice.