The name of the merchant group that requested an escort was Rivilla.
The content of the request was to escort the merchant caravan until they reached Pelmia, a medium-sized city located about ten days’ journey from Vespian.
“As stated in the request form, we’ll pay eight silver coins for copper token adventurers and two for iron tokens. In case of an attack, if it ends without damage to our side, we’ll pay an additional silver coin per incident.”
The actual client I met was a middle-aged man named Lug, who looked like an ordinary merchant group employee rather than a high-ranking person like the head of the merchant group or branch manager.
Well, unless it was a caravan transporting extremely valuable goods, this caravan was carrying ordinary necessities and moderate luxury goods, so it’s unlikely that someone as high-ranking as a branch manager would come out in person.
“Hmm… when you say ‘ends without damage’, is that limited to the transported goods, or does it include the merchant group staff as well?”
If it was the latter, the additional payment could be considered empty words.
Wouldn’t it mean we shouldn’t even dream of additional compensation if even one porter dies from a stray arrow?
Protecting the cargo might not be too difficult, but it’s impossible to look after the lives of every escort and porter belonging to the merchant group.
“Haha. Of course, I’m talking about the cargo wagons. Our employees are our responsibility to take care of. Your job is only to protect the goods safely.”
Fortunately, this Rivilla merchant group didn’t seem to be that unscrupulous.
Seeing that they affirmed they would take care of their workers’ lives themselves and we just needed to protect the cargo.
“Is that so? That’s good to hear.”
I smiled and pressed my thumbprint on the contract.
Eight silver for hiring a copper token adventurer for ten days was close to an absurdly low price, but from the merchant group’s perspective, this amount was probably their best offer.
Unless they get attacked by bandits or the like during the journey, if nothing happens, the adventurers would be getting free money for doing nothing.
Merchants aren’t charity workers, why would they want to give handfuls of silver coins to surplus manpower who didn’t do anything?
So they offered the condition of paying 8 silver as a base wage and an additional 1 silver per attack incident.
Meaning they would pay according to how much we actually worked.
…Does this mean we should hope for attackers to appear?
I don’t particularly need money, so I don’t mind if the base wage is a bit low, but if an ordinary adventurer took on a job with these conditions, wouldn’t they secretly hope for monsters or bandits to attack throughout the journey?
* * *
Since there was about a day left until the merchant group’s departure, I called my party members to the first floor of the inn to discuss this request.
We discussed things like the request conditions, schedule, and consumables we needed to prepare.
Gathering the party members was easy.
Friede was staying in the room next to mine from the beginning, and Amy had also decided to stay in the room opposite mine, saying she was thinking of leaving the dormitory anyway.
So, I just needed to bring Kikel, who was using a different inn due to heating issues, over here.
“Friede, is this your first time meeting him? Say hello. This is the iron token warrior who will be working with us from now on―”
“I’m Kikel Greg!”
Kikel, who came to the ‘Snow Bear’s Shelter’ like that, let out a quiet exclamation as soon as he saw Friede sitting at the table waiting.
“You, small but strong cub! I can see! Amazing! Tell name!”
Saying that although she looked like a small child on the outside, she clearly seemed surprisingly strong. It was his own way of high praise.
Was it a wild instinct? As soon as he saw Friede, he seemed to recognize that she was skilled enough to be in the upper ranks even among copper token adventurers.
“Ah, um… th-thank you…?”
Of course, because his way of speaking was so bizarre, even the compliment he managed to give lost its meaning.
“C-Copper token adventurer, Friede…”
Friede quickly hid behind my back, and only poked her head out to introduce herself in a trembling tone.
“Ha.”
Amy burst into laughter as if the sight was ridiculous.
She seemed to have already completely erased from her memory the fact that she too had been intimidated by Kikel’s appearance when they first met.
“You don’t need to be so nervous, Friede. Although he looks a bit scary, he’s a kind and reliable friend in his own way.”
We’ll have to keep moving together from now on, so it would be troublesome if she kept being so shy like this.
“Honestly, among iron token adventurers, there’s probably no party member as reliable as Kikel here. So don’t worry.”
I smiled faintly while stroking Friede’s black hair that looked like a magpie’s nest, trying to calm her as she clung tightly to my back.
Kikel’s face did look a bit fierce… but well, that was probably just because he was a rarely encountered different race that made him seem particularly impressive.
Once you get used to it, you could say his face was a hundred, no, a thousand times better than mediocre adventurers.
Most of them were vicious not just in face but in heart as well.
“R-Really…?”
Perhaps her tension had eased a bit from the hand stroking her hair, Friede, who had been as tense as a cat with its tail straight up, looked up at me and slightly pulled up the corners of her mouth.
“Kak, kachak! I see. I know!”
Kikel, who had been watching this scene, burst into laughter and spoke to me.
“Your words. Two flowers, right? Very popular, envious!”
It seemed he was joking that a situation like mine now is called having flowers in both hands, and that he was envious of how popular I looked.
“That’s a mischievous joke. What do you mean flowers in both hands, it’s not like that.”
I chuckled and shrugged my shoulders.
Flowers in both hands? That’s a phrase used when one man is going around with two women.
I was already clearly in a woman’s body, and moreover, Amy and Friede weren’t my lovers or anything like that, just close acquaintances and capable party members.
So how could this be called flowers in both hands?
“They’re just… how should I put it. Right, they’re new friends I made after coming here. That kind of talk is rude, rude.”
Honestly, it was the kind of joke only a drunk uncle would make.
“Ahem, ahem!”
“Hah…!”
See?
The joke was so mischievous that even Friede and Amy turned red and averted their gazes as if embarrassed.
What are you going to do about this atmosphere?
“Kachak! Kak! I see! Don’t know! Kachak!”
I looked at Kikel with eyes that said to try and smooth things over, but Kikel just burst into laughter and said he didn’t know.
* * *
A day after that, we finished all our preparations and left Vespian’s city gates with the Rivilla merchant group.
A procession of three cargo wagons with twenty people including porters and the merchant group’s own escorts.
In addition, a total of ten adventurers, including our party, were attached as escorts.
Five copper tokens and five iron tokens.
I thought having five copper tokens was a bit excessive for a request to transport daily necessities… but after meeting the adventurers in person, I could roughly understand the reason.
“Hilde, was it? Nice to meet you. I’m Bardu. This is…”
“I’m Jane. Nice to meet you.”
A two-person party of a copper token warrior and an iron token ranger.
Judging by the honey dripping from their eyes as they looked at each other, they seemed to have become lovers after meeting during their adventurer life.
Probably, he took on this kind of request to help raise Jane, who was lower in rank than himself.
Just like our party chose a request easier than our rank to help Kikel rank up.
“My, who do we have here… Isn’t it Hilde? It’s been a while?”
“Ah… yes. It’s been a while, Amina.”
The other party was someone I at least knew by face.
Amina, a copper token female adventurer. A swordswoman who said she learned swordsmanship from a retired knight in her hometown, going around with just light armor and a longsword.
“These are our party members. Reneom, Ben, Hamill. They’re all iron token adventurers.”
“I haven’t seen any of the three before. Those party members from last time…?”
I don’t usually remember the names of adventurers I’ve only met once, but this Amina was someone I remembered clearly.
Why, you ask?
“Oh, those guys? I got tired of them and let them go. I’m sure they’re living well on their own, aren’t they?”
“…You haven’t changed.”
This adventurer called Amina, her usual hobby is to take in iron or wooden token adventurer men who are reasonably good-looking into her party, pamper them, and raise them.
Not just in dungeons, but in bed too.
What did she say to me… that men are most fun when there are three of them? It was advice I didn’t particularly want to understand the meaning of.
Anyway, when she gets tired of them, she throws them away without regret as she just said, and then repeats the process of seducing new men to fill her party?
With such conduct and a face that was pretty in its own way, she was quite popular among lower-ranked adventurers.
Although it’s hard to see it as a positive reputation since she gained popularity through unhealthy and promiscuous behavior.
* * *
In fact, merchant escort requests were considered something to be avoided among adventurers.
Unlike the common dungeon exploration missions, most cases involved just as much hardship but with ambiguous rewards.
First of all, the schedule itself was hellishly intense.
Most caravans that hired adventurers as escorts were long-distance journeys that took at least a week, generally lasting a full fortnight.
Even this time, wasn’t it a ten-day journey?
It meant marching all day long on the cold northern snowy roads for that long journey without being able to wash or sleep properly, but is that something as simple as it sounds?
Even warriors with good stamina would complain of physical and mental fatigue by evening, let alone those who weren’t warriors.
“Heck… heck… Why did we take on such a request…”
Right away, Amy from our party was panting and complaining of difficulty.
“Hey, Kikel…? Can’t you carry me on your back?”
To the point where she was willing to throw away her pride and everything, wanting to be carried like luggage.
“Kachak…! This, money, should receive, not right?”
Kikel joked, shrugging his shoulders. Saying that while carrying her wouldn’t be that difficult, since she’s making him do porter’s work, shouldn’t she pay a fee?
Of course, he didn’t seem to really intend to take money.
In fact, Kikel himself would welcome it too. Wouldn’t having a person stuck right to you help maintain body temperature?
Thanks to the heating stones I had bought and passed on to him, thinking of them as necessary expenses, he was able to follow along on the snowy march without problems, but still, having a person attached would improve his condition at least a little more.
“Isn’t it the opposite? It’s a chance to carry an eighteen-year-old pretty girl on your back. If anything, you should be paying me money.”
Amy, who seemed to have roughly noticed this too, countered with the same joking tone, showing a confident smile and slightly raising her chin.
“Pre-pretty girl? Kachakak!”
Kikel burst into laughter.
“I, know. That, self-awareness? Much, it is!”
Sinking Amy with one phrase about her being overly self-conscious.
“What? No, really…!”
Amy, whose feelings had been cut to the quick, lightly struck Kikel’s thigh with the staff she was holding.
Due to his thick fur cloak and scales, from Kikel’s perspective it was no more than a light touch from a child.