“Good afternoon,” Adam said.

He was invited inside, along with the Devilkin and Iyrman, to sit down. He placed the bread basket down on the table.

The room was quite long, and was no doubt used as the main room for the entire  family, who probably used this place as a place to eat, a place to hang out, and a place to sleep.

A thin woman with long dark hair quickly turned to make them something to drink. The man, an older fellow who was thinner than the woman, with weak eyes and a strong frown, stared at the Devilkin suspiciously. 

“Good afternoon,” the man eventually replied, his eyes snapping to Adam. “You must be Adam, the Half Elf?”

There was a young girl who was peeking from another room, only her forehead and eyes could be seen through the doorway.

As Lucy smiled, she quickly disappeared.

Adam nodded. “I kept my helmet on because I didn’t want to scare you, but I guess it doesn’t matter.” He removed his helmet to reveal his beautiful face to the man, who squinted at the beauty of the Elvish fella opposite him. 

Adam had only brought his breastplate, helmet, and his Phantom with him, trying to hold some level of power, but didn’t want to seem too threatening.

“So, shall we discuss the matter?” Adam asked. 

“You wanted to train my son?” Nobby’s father asked.

“That’s right.”

“Why? What’s got an Elf like you worked up about my Nobby?”

“Half Elf,” Adam corrected. “He’s built like an Auroch, and Jurot here is eager to train him.”

The man nodded to Jurot. “Pleasure meeting you. Ted.”

Jurot nodded in return. “It is a pleasure to meet you, Ted. Jurot, son of Surot.”

“Whose the Devilkin?”

“I’m not a-“

Adam placed a hand on her mouth. “Lucy. She’s a friend.”

Lucy bit Adam’s hand.

Health: 65 -> 62

“So the good Iyrman wants to train my son, but what about you?” Ted asked Adam. “What’re your thoughts about all this?”

“I think it’s a good idea,” Adam said. “Jurot wants to train him into a Rage Dancer, which will be useful for him in the future.”

“What’ll he do once he’s a Rage Dancer?”

Adam remained silent. He rubbed his chin. ‘That’s a good question.’ “Well… Usually, the way it goes is that I will become strong enough to get my own keep, right? I’ve actually been thinking about it recently. Anyway, I’d like Nobby to be my number one… Enforcer?”

“Enforcer?” 

“My personal Guard. No, my strongest Guard. I want to be able to leave him at my keep and to protect everything which is most precious to me.”

“Lots of trust you’re giving my boy,” Ted said.

Adam shrugged. 

“And what qualifications do you have to make my boy one of your Enforcers?”

“Well…” Adam paused to think. “Within a year, Jurot and I have become Experts. Not only have we become Experts, but before we even became Experts, we slew a Blue Dragon. Before slaying the Blue Dragon, we slew a White Dragon, one which was most older. Well, we assisted in slaying it.”

“Adam assisted in slaying it,” Jurot said. “We remained behind.”

Ted, having not expected to hear that, blinked. “What?”

“Plus, I managed to defeat an Expert Guardian before I even became an Expert,” Adam said. “He still hasn’t sworn his Oaths to me, but what can you do?” Adam shrugged his shoulders. “He’s doing his job well, though. He’s helping train someone with another Iyrman, so this isn’t the first time we’ve plucked someone up to train. Well, the other one doesn’t have as much talent as Nobby.”

Ted continued to blink as his wife brought out some tea, listening intently to the conversation.

“I’m not sure you can trust me, considering my…” Adam wiggled his ears. “If it makes you feel any better, I’m a Nephew of a family in the Iyr, and I’m this one’s brother.” Adam motioned his head to Jurot. “There are a few other things, but they’re sort of a secret, and I can’t really divulge everything, but I assure you that Nobby is going to be well taken care of.”

“I’m not saying you’re a liar, but it is all a little unbelievable,” Ted said, his heart pounding wildly. 

“Jurot?” Adam said. 

“It’s true,” he said. “All of it.”

Adam motioned to the bread. “Jam bun?”

The man accepted it, eating the jam bun slowly, staring between them all.

“You want to train Nobby… why?” Ted looked to Jurot.

“He will be strong,” Jurot replied, simply. 

“A Rage Dancer? My son?”

Jurot nodded. “Yes.”

“So how much will it cost? We’re decent and honest folk, but we’re only making honest pay,” Ted said.

“What?” Adam asked. “What do you mean?”

“How much must we pay for the tutorship?” Ted asked.

Adam looked to Jurot. “Are we meant to charge them?”

“I will leave it to you,” Jurot said.

“Uh,” Adam said, unsure of what to say. “I… wasn’t expecting to charge you. In fact, it was the opposite. I was going to pay Nobby a small rate to send back to you while I took care of all of his expenses, and then he’d pay us back through his labour in the future.”

Ted stared at Adam, squinting his eyes, unsure of what had happened to this conversation. He hadn’t been interested in it, but his curiosity had gotten the best of him, but it had all turned upside down. ‘We’ll be getting paid?’

Adam looked to Jurot. “Is that okay? I realised I didn’t run it by you.”

Jurot nodded. “I will follow you, Adam.”

“How long?” Ted asked. “How long must he work with you?”

“That’s a good question,” Adam said. “I’ll be honest with you. I didn’t figure out all the specifics yet. I was thinking we’d need about two, maybe three years, to bring him up to an Expert?”

Jurot nodded. 

“An Expert within two years?” Ted asked. 

“That’s impossible,” the mother said, before covering her mouth in embarrassment. 

“Is it?” Adam asked. “Well, leave it to us. We’ll make him an Expert and equip him with whatever he needs. He’ll work for us for… five years after the training period? We’ll of course continue to equip him during his work. The longer he works for us, the more he’ll get to keep.”

Jurot squinted, before looking to Adam, unsure of what he was talking about. Ted also squinted, giving Adam the same look. 

“Can I write this down?” Adam asked. “It’ll be easier for me.”

“I’m not so good with the letters,” Ted said.

“I can read, a little,” the mother said. “I was learning the past year.”

“Alright.” Adam grabbed his pack, only to realise he didn’t have anything to write with or to write in.

Jurot brought out a small book, placing it down for Adam, and placed down his stylus. 

“Thanks,” Adam said, clearing his throat.

Nobby is to be trained until he becomes what is commonly known as an Expert Rage Dancer. 

Upon completion of his training, he will work for Adam and Jurot for a period of five years, earning a fair wage after his training costs are considered.

During the time of his employment, equipment may be leant to him, which must be returned to Adam and Jurot if he does not continue service. 

However, Adam and Jurot may decide whether he is allowed to keep certain equipment leant to him depending on his service.
 
"For example,” Adam said, writing down what he was saying. “If we lent him a longsword, quite a pricey wea-“

“Axe,” Jurot said.

“Right, of course. If we lent him an axe and a shield, he can probably keep it after a year of service, I think that's fair.” Adam shrugged his shoulders. “If, however, he is leant a magical axe, then that's something where he might have to work for us for many years, perhaps even swearing to work for us for life, with decent pay of course, or he can have it if he’s done something outstanding to earn it.”
 
"A magical weapon?" Ted asked, staring up at the Half Elf. “There's no need to get the boy's hopes up."

Adam chuckled. “He'll probably receive a magical weapon quickly. We’ll take him to the Iyr, train him, and once he’s pretty strong, before he’s even an Expert, I’ll get him a magical weapon.”

Ted shook his head, unsure of what he was hearing. This sounded too good to be true, and if it wasn’t the Adventurer’s Guild which had sent them to him, and if there wasn’t an Iyrman here, he probably would have called the Guards. 

"A magical weapon for my boy?” He looked to Jurot.

Jurot revealed his magical axe, then motioned to Phantom. “Adam prefer that the warriors near him carry such weapons.”

“Do you think you could train him to become a Knight?” Ted asked.

"A Knight?” Adam asked. “I'm not sure about that. No offence, but Knights typically need a little... you know. I don't think that complicated life is for him." Adam cleared his throat. 

Ted threw a look to his wife, slowly nodding his head.

"I want matters to be simple for him,” Adam said. “We train him. He works for us, either as an Enforcer, a Bodyguard, a Guard, whatever. He’ll be paid well.”

"The matter of pay,” Ted said, sitting up straighter. “You say that you'll pay us during his training?”

“Yes. It'll be a small wage. I will provide his equipment, food, lodging, and so on. You don't have to worry about that. I will send a small stipend to his home and give him some money to play with too. Jeremy and Remy should attest to how well I pay, and the bonuses I give." 

"We've heard,” Ted said. “I have to say, it's a little surprising, considering you're an Elf."

“Only a Half Elf,” Adam said. 

“And a Devilkin too.”

Lucy growled.

“She knows how to behave,” Adam said.

"I see."

"How much does Nobby usually bring in when he’s portering?”

"Well, that's to say..." Ted looked to his wife, unsure if he should say.

"Relax,” Adam said, chuckling. “I just want to figure out how much to pay you so you don't starve to death while he's gone. I want to make sure his parents are taken good care of. If you don't want to tell me how much he makes, then tell me how much you need without him here." 

Ted swallowed. "My son makes roughly five silver coins a day. There are some days when he makes slightly less and slightly more, and some days he cannot find work. I would say one hundred and twenty five silver a month?" 

"What's that, twelve and a half gold?" Adam mused. 
 
"Yes, though we were able to save some of it every month, for the future."

Adam tapped the table. "Do you know how much it costs to hire a basic Mercenary monthly?"

Jurot tilted his head. "It depends on the group. There is an upfront fee of ten gold, and an additional ten gold a month for each Mercenary. This doesn’t include the fees for food and lodging, and there are times you may need to provide gear for them too. They come in groups of four to eleven, usually."

"How much does it cost to hire an Expert?"

"At least one hundred gold monthly, including fifty gold as an upfront fee.”
 
Adam whistled. "I’ll hand over ten gold as the upfront fee, and we’ll send home ten gold a month, and pay him a few gold coins as we train him. We’ll equip him, feed him, so on and so on. Then, once he's an Expert, we’ll update his payment to fifty gold a month, though until the price of his training and equipment is paid off, we’ll be paying him half. Then, after everything is said and done, we’ll see how much we should keep him on for. What do you think?”

Ted blinked at Adam, unsure of what to say. Even though Adam was offering half the price for an eventual Expert, the fact that his son would be paid so much was still surprising to him. 

“We will speak to him,” his wife said.
 
"Great,” Adam said, smiling at her. “He'll be a Rage Dancer, meaning he won't be wearing much armour, but we'll get him a nice set of weapons. Axe and shield, eh Jurot? Gotta make sure he doesn’t die.”

"And if he does die?" Ted asked.

Adam tapped the table. "If we can't revive him after he falls, we will come back and sort that out with you." Adam bowed his head slowly.

"The typical amount is three months pay, but you should know our son is worth more than thirty gold," Ted stated.
 
"Like I said, I'll sort it out. I don't forget those who do me favours, and I know Nobby is a good, hard working lad. I'll do right by him if anything does happen to him." Adam cleared his throat. "I'll do my best to make sure he comes back safely each time, but I can't promise anything. I can promise that you'll be getting more than thirty gold, that's for sure." 

Ted wanted to press it further, but Adam had already done so much for him, so he nodded. "You're not so bad."

"Thanks."

“Thank you for your gold, from before,” Ted said, extending a hand to shake Adam’s forearm.

“Any time,” Adam said. “If you have any issues, you let me know. I’m doing this much because I really want Nobby to be one of mine.”

“We will speak with Nobby, and when he’s got his answer, we’ll have a contract made,” Ted said.

“The Adventurer’s Guild can do it, right?” Adam asked.

“Yes,” Jurot replied.

“Well then, I’ll be seeing you,” Adam said, winking at the little girl, who hid away again. 

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Sorry for the late chapter. I messed up my sleep again. It does mean maybe I'll be even further ahead? I'm currently 50 chapters ahead on patreon and they changed the way they did payments so you are charged on the day that you join from now on. 

I still need to work on that xianxia project though...