“Why didn’t you kill him?” Sekh asked me in a disgruntled tone.

“Because I’d get arrested,” I said as though it was obvious. 

“We just have to dump his body in the river then,” Sekh explained as we were walking back to the city. “The witnesses will be the real problem, though I’m sure that some threats and bribes will be enough to fix that issue.”

“You planned a murder?” I asked, flabbergasted.

“We,” Zeph suddenly chimed in. 

“You were literally holding her back,” I pointed out to Zeph. “Did you get a change of heart when I was the one who became the prime suspect?”

“Perhaps,” Zeph replied dubiously. 

“After everything we’ve been through,” I mocked. “I can’t believe you’d be so cruel to me.”

“Don’t worry, I would have visited you in prison,” Zeph consoled me.

“That’s just salt in the wound,” I complained. “Anyways, where do you two want to go for lunch?”

“Fish,” Sekh asserted. “I don’t care about the place, but I want fish.”

Both Zeph and I sighed when we heard Sekh’s demands. Well it was pretty much to be expected. I’m also quite sure that she’s going to request headpats and cuddles when we get home.

The three of us soon arrived at Sekh’s favorite fish restaurant which served fresh catch from the river. I find the fish dishes to be quite good, though the beer they serve is the selling point for me. 

“Are you ready to order?” the waiter asked us sometime after we sat down. 

“The usual, but add two sides of the crispy fried small fish,” Sekh answered. 

“I’ll take the spiced rice, homemade beer, three fried soft shell crabs, and shrimp salad with extra avocado and onion,” I replied. 

“I...ummm,” Zeph muttered.

“Zeph, you’re still deciding aren’t you?” Sekh asked boredly. 

“Well that’s…,” Zeph said awkwardly.

“We can just have the waiter come back later,” I told her. 

“That’s true,” Zeph replied. “I’ll be ready in around five minutes then.”

Those were true words, though too exact. Zeph only managed to decide on an order at the very last second when the waiter was literally walking towards our table. She also went the boring route and just ordered battered fish with bread, which somehow took her ten minutes to decide on. In comparison, Sekh’s usual order consists of biscuits and a large herb roasted fish. 

Unlike us, the rookies were unlikely to go to a higher end restaurant and most went to one of the cheaper options. Though our eating place of choice was more in the mid range compared to the whole city. 

The three of us ate without talking. Sekh was pretty much stuffing her face to feel better while Zeph watched with mild concern. Since there was no point in talking to them, I just slipped into my own thoughts as I ate. 

When I thought about that Varius idiot that got us into this situation, I began to recall my past self. I hate to admit it, but I was actually quite similar to Varius in the past. The main difference being that I wasn’t as stupid, incompetent, or unfunny. But I had the same horrendous sense of self importance. Ugh, even recalling those memories puts me in physical pain.

“Hey, you ok?” Sekh asked while lightly tapping my hand. 

“Oh,” I said in surprise. “Don’t worry, it’s nothing.”

“You two seem really off today,” Zeph remarked. “If you guys need to take a break, I can always cover for a bit.”

“There’s no need for that, but I appreciate it,” I told her. 

It’s not like she can even cover for us anyways, but the sentiment is nice. Still, I’m curious about what would happen if I did accept her offer. 

We came back to the field after we finished eating lunch. Since Sekh spent extra time eating, we were hardly the first on the field.

“Let’s just wait for a while,” I announced to the crowd. “We can take some time to digest and wait for stragglers.”

While we sat there to wait, I went around to the various individuals on the field to give them a report on their sparring. While most seemed to take heed of my advice, a few seemed to be less receptive of my critique. 

“Thanks for telling me,” Justin said when I was giving him my report. “I didn’t know that my footing was off.”

“It’s just a small thing,” I replied. “Besides , I can’t get too much information from watching just one match.”

“Will we get to monster hunting soon?” he asked me.

“Hopefully,” I told him. “But I remembered that I wanted you all to do some practice shooting before we leave.”

“What will you do if someone doesn’t have a projectile weapon?” he wondered.

“They’ll just watch then,” I answered. “No point in having people try out weapons for the first time. Plus I don’t plan to buy equipment for people.”

We continued to wait until most of the rookies came back on the field. Once enough were back, I could finally begin the target shooting session.

“I’ve noticed that a lot of you aren’t using ranged weapons,” I said to the crowd. “I don’t know whether it’s because you don’t know how to or don’t have the money, but I advise that you change soon. Ranged weapons are objectively the most useful means to deal with most enemies you’ll face. Mostly because you don’t put yourself at risk as much.”

After my little presentation, I gestured for everyone to go over to the archery butts. The ones with ranged weapons went in groups of three at a time and took shots at the targets. It was nothing remarkable, some were good, some were alright, and some were bad. 

For the sake of time, I also commented while they were demonstrating their skill, regardless of their embarrassment. Both Zeph and Sekh also contributed this time, since they have considerable expertise in this area. 

"We’ll just go out for a short hunt,” I announced to the crowd. “There should be some ratmen in the surrounding area for us to remove. But I’d like to get back before nightfall, so we might come back empty handed.”

“We should split up then,” Zeph suggested. 

“That’s the plan,” I replied. “Each instructor will take a third and move separately.”

“Sounds good,” Sekh said with a thumbs up. 

Before we could split up the rookies, one of the mercenaries raised his hand to raise a question. 

“I heard that there are some slimes close by as well,” he announced. “Should some of us hunt them instead?”

“No, absolutely not,” I declared. “That’s not something for sellswords to do.”

“But slimes aren’t dangerous,” he argued. “They’ll only eat off your clothing.”

“Not at all,” I said in shock. “That only happens in porn.”

“How do you know that?” Zeph asked, emphasizing the ‘you’ in particular.

“Zeph, don’t ask stupid questions,” I replied. “Back on topic, slimes will dissolve you into soup no matter what. Wearing armor is also a waste since their digestive acid will ruin any set of armor, given enough time. Plus slimes aren’t a profitable quarry because the powder used to neutralize their acid costs almost as much as the bounty for clearing the slimes.”

“Then why don’t we just use our weapons to get rid of them?” the sellsword persisted. 

“That’s how you ruin your gear,” I said tiredly. “Just believe me when I say that you don’t want to clear slimes. There’s a reason that a part of the government budget is dedicated towards removing those things.”

It seemed as though that was enough to dissuade him, so we could finally move on. Shortly after, we split the rookies into three groups of twelve with each instructor leading one. Our plan was to move in a three pronged attack towards the location where the ratmen were located. I would be leading the center, while Sekh and Zeph took the left and right respectively. 

“I’m glad we’re in your group,” Irene said as I led my rookies along the wetlands. 

“You don’t trust Sekh and Zeph?” I quipped back at her. 

Upon realizing her mistake, Irene got embarrassed and began to wave her hands rapidly in front of her face. 

“Not at all,” she denied. “I just think that you’re the most experienced one.”

“Really now?” I said almost boastfully. “I’m curious but is it because of my equipment?”

“Somewhat,” she replied. “Even the soldiers in the city aren’t as well equipped as you are.”

“Well I was part of an elite group during the Stygian war,” I remarked. “Still, equipment isn’t the perfect indicator for capability amongst mercenaries. The main reason Sekh and Zeph are so lightly armed is because it suits their fighting style. Sekh even declined keeping a direwolf pelt to wear, despite the fact that she helped me hunt those monsters.”

“You hunted those?” Justin chimed in. “Was it dangerous?”

“Obviously,” I answered. “But I’m glad I had Sekh there at the time. Otherwise I would’ve had to spend so much more time being cautious.”

“Having a partner is nice,” Justin agreed. “Things would have been much more rough for me if Irene wasn’t here for me.”

“You’re making her blush,” I joked as Irene went a bright red. 

“But it’s the truth,” Justin asserted. 

I don’t know if he’s doing it on purpose, but he’s only making her blush more. At the very least, Irene looks happy instead of some variation of angry. Reminds me of Minerva now that I think about it. 

We continued to track the ratmen for some time. During that time, I gave the rookies tips on tracking, such as searching for prints, droppings, and other signs. Since most of my students appear to be from the countryside, I feel that my tips were more of a review than something new. 

“The tracks here look fresher,” Justin observed as we were traveling the wetlands. “I’m actually surprised that there are monsters so close to the city.”

“It’s ratmen,” I argued. “These things are like roaches. They reproduce too fast, they’re small enough to avoid detection, and eat pretty much anything.”

“But I didn’t see that many near my village,” he replied.

“Did you have larger monsters in the vicinity?” I asked.

“I think so,” he answered. “Right, Irene?”

“Yeah,” she agreed. “Maybe not all of them were monsters though, since there were a good amount of wolves in the nearby forests.”

“That’s the issue,” I pointed out. “Ratmen populations are mostly kept in check by predators like wolves and larger monsters. But those things get wiped out by people first so the ratmen have free reign aside from the occasional guard patrol or angry farmers.”

“That makes a lot of sense,” Justin remarked. 

It’s not that it makes sense, it’s just a natural occurrence. That’s why ratmen weren’t a serious problem back in the Marches. Though I ended up having to hunt more bears and direwolves as a result. 

In order to develop some skills in coordination, I had some of the rookies with me deliver messages to the other groups. A mostly successful idea, though someone almost managed to get lost. 

Around an hour before evening, we finally caught sight of the ratmen tribe. It was a paltry group which consisted of about ten pathetic creatures. 

“This isn’t even going to be worth the effort,” I thought.

“Don’t move in yet,” I cautioned my group. “I want two messengers to get in contact with the other groups before we do anything.”

Fortunately both Sekh and Zeph kept their groups on standby instead of charging or pelting the rats with projectiles. Thus we only had to wait a short while before our three groups could mount a coordinated attack on the ratmen.

The plan I devised was to coral the ratmen to an open area. Then someone would blow a horn and all groups would pelt the ratmen with projectiles. Once the ratmen were softened up or wiped out, the horn would be blown a second time and all groups would converge on the rats to finish off survivors. Although it was a good strategy, I was mainly doing it to train the rookies. Since it was certainly overkill considering we’re dealing with literally just ten ratmen. 

Thus our three divisions proceeded to simply walk menacingly at the ratmen. This was actually the hardest part, since we had to try to coordinate and move the cluster of rats to a suitable position. 

But once the corralling was done, the sound of a horn rang through the air. From the sound of it, the horn bearer was located in Zeph’s group. Upon the sound of the horn, a hail of arrows, javelins, and bolts soared towards the ratmen. I didn’t contribute, nor did Sekh or Zeph, since I had requested that we let the rookies handle all the heavy lifting. 

When the second toot came, all three divisions moved in on what was left of the ratmen. What remained was a bloody pile of corpses and dying creatures. The ratmen were battered and broken, all of them having bloody wounds where the projectile still lay embedded. The lucky ones either died or passed out from their injuries, while a few gave pitiful moans as they lay dying. Faced with the gruesome site, a number of the rookies vomited, turned away, or did something along those lines. In other words, it was just a Monday. 

“Finish them off already,” I chided. “Leaving them like this only increases their suffering. Besides, the most efficient way of dealing with beasts is sometimes the most brutal.”

“Then how come you’re not helping?” someone in the crowd asked me.

“I’m giving you all a chance to gain experience,” I explained. “How else am I supposed to drop the rookie casualty rate?”

Our next order of business was disposing of the bodies, which we did by building a makeshift pyre from dry reeds. I made sure to instruct my students where to build these pyres in order to prevent a fire from spreading. Before long, the putrid smell of scorched flesh filled the air along with smoke. 

With everything done, I dragged all the rookies back to Damask to cash in the ratmen tails at the Bureau. And for their excellent work, each rookie was awarded a substantial amount of 1 nummus each. Funnily enough, the Bureau actually had to subsidize the payment so every rookie could get paid, in order to not let anyone feel left out. 

As we were dispersing the payment among the students, Minerva came into the lobby to make an announcement. 

“I have a message for all the rookies that are receiving training,” Minerva said with an almost thunderous voice. “If you don’t already know, you’ll be receiving housing accommodations while you’re training. Go to the Leaping Bass inn, it’s located in the south side of the city. The Bureau has already paid for your rooms and food, but only at that location.”

When the rookies received their pay, they all quickly dispersed to the inn. A few, like Justin and Irene, bade me goodnight. But the rest just scampered off into the distance. 

“Did paying for their rooms cost a lot?” I asked Minerva when the students were gone.

“Not much, the total was 6 denarii per night to be exact,” Minerva replied. “For thirty six people, that’s a really good price. But I think the inn owners didn’t include alcohol in the payment, so that’s how they’re going to recoup their loss.”

“Nicely done,” I replied. “I’m glad that I can rely on you.”

“Ah, no problem,” Minerva said while rubbing the back of her head awkwardly. “Though I am the person who proposed this training, so it is my job. By the way, I heard you had some trouble with a highborn brat.”

“We did,” Sekh and Zeph said with uniformly disgruntled looks. 

“Sorry about that,” Minerva replied. “Don’t worry, I already got the necessary documents in order. All you need to do is verify the information and he’ll end up on the blacklist. After that, we can enjoy some sweets and brandy that I bought to compensate you guys for your trouble.”

“Wow, thanks,” I said in surprise. “You really didn’t have to do that much for us.”

“Come on, you’re my precious friends and employees,” Minerva said with a big smile. “Now finish checking the report so we can have dinner and dessert.”

It turns out that Minerva also bought us dinner as well. Although not as luxurious as the dessert, our dinner of flatbread rolls with spiced sausage and fresh herbs was delicious. Minerva had even made sure that Sekh’s rolls had battered fish instead of sausage. 

“You’re the best boss,” I said to Minerva after happily downing a glass of brandy.

“I agree,” Sekh added while eating a piece of bread with sweet cream and dried fruit. 

Even Zeph tossed in a congratulatory thumbs up, since she seemed very pleased with her allotment of sweets.

“I’m...happy to hear that,” Minerva said with a jubilant expression. “You’re all incredible as well.”

“Speaking of employees, how are the clerks doing?” I asked. 

“Pretty good if I have to be honest,” Minerva said with a thoughtful look. “Things have been going quite smooth recently. Maybe this isn’t the best indicator, but I haven’t had to yell at my clerks as much.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, that’s a great indicator,” I remarked. “But I’m glad that you’re feeling happier now.”

“Thanks to you,” Minerva said with a smile. “Given enough time, I think the clerks at Bureua might be able to hold out without my presence. Maybe we can have a vacation when that time comes.”

“Yeah, a vacation sounds nice,” I replied.

“Yup,” Minerva said happily.

“You two done flirting?” Zeph butted in. 

In response, Minerva turned a bright red and hid her face while Sekh started giggling on the side. 

“Why? You want to join in?” I quipped back at Zeph. 

“Not at all!” Zeph yelled in outrage, which only provoked further laughter from me and Sekh.