We continued onwards to the mercenary guild building, leisurely walking through the streets, enjoying the food we bought. Between the eating and sightseeing we talked about the old times and the adventures we’ve experienced together in our youth.
While walking and talking the scenery changed multiple times when we entered different districts. We didn’t bother taking the safest route and avoiding the more dangerous areas, instead we took the most straight forward route we could find. Unsurprisingly we weren’t even attacked and nobody tried to mug us. Walking around with a big sword on my back and a two meter Oni is enough to prevent any bad ideas.
We reached the mercenary guilds building without any noteworthy interruptions. The mercenary guild building was one of the most unique building in the entire town. According to the maids it was the third biggest structure after the castle and the Five star academy. The building was surrounded by a big compound, walled of from the outside, by a big wall made of black stone. It looked like small evil castle in the middle of the town. Behind the dark walls was a big compound filled with marked fields and some smaller buildings on the edges of the field. Many of those fields were in use either by some mercenaries training or sparing, or staff being busy with taking apart monsters or cleaning up for later uses of these fields. In the middle of the field was a big blocky building, the main building. A multi story structure, with a big hall on the backside. Contrary to the black walls this building was white and friendly looking, even the way up to the building was a nice alley with trees on both sides. The trees made for a rather good blocker of line of sight hiding the more gory parts of the mercenaries, so normal citizen won’t be traumatized, by what they see, when they want to get help from mercenaries.
We entered the guilds ground through the massive main gate, guarded by two persons armored in heavy black armor. Te armor they were wearing was a sign demonstrating the power and wealth of the mercenary guild. Only few can give their guards an armor made of obsidite. I have heard stories that in some kingdoms armors of this kind are the heirloom of the ruling nobility. A powerful sign to use something like this for mere guards.
The guards ignored us when we walked past them, only glancing sneakily at us, assessing and scanning us. After we passes them and left them meters behind they slightly moved, to others only a slight change of stance. Erin however reacted immediately to their movement, which informed me that they had used magic. Either a scanning magic or communication to the building ahead, maybe even both. Still nothing to worry about, we have a royal certificate and the mercenaries are usually intelligent enough to not escalate thing needlessly.
Continuing our walk through the alley, we stole glances past the trees to see whats happening behind them on the open fields. We only saw some dueling and training, with the majority of the fields being empty. The last time I had been here some days prior it had been much more busy. Those fluctuations are nothing abnormal for mercenary guilds, however they would never be empty.
We entered the big white building through the main door. The wooden doors slid sideways the moment we stepped in front of them. These doors obviously were magical, enchanted to open, when someone was near enough. The most intriguing thing about them was the fact that they slid open, parting sideways into the wall to let one enter. A truly unusual design, but one that was needed for this building. A conventional door would be to big and heavy for commoners to open and mercenaries would always find a reason to complain, that such a door swung open in the wrong direction. A sliding door was the most acceptable design in this case, not perfect, but good enough for no persistent complains.
The inside of the building was a big hall filled with tables and chairs in the sides. The walls behind them were covered in loads of notices and contracts. Jobs for mercenaries, probably even sorted by some kind of system. Straight ahead on the other side of the hall, were the stereotypical counters located. Manned by neatly dressed woman and men, ready to serve customers and mercenaries alike, with a tireless smile. The staff of the mercenary guild have an important job they take care of the many request that are given to the guild and are in charge of all the minor details the mercenaries take for granted. Secondly they take care of the mercenaries request and make sure that they do their work properly, lastly they have to take care of the occasionally special requests.
Today I am the one with such a special request. A promotion to a top ranked mercenary, by the orders of nobility. A pretty ease request all things considered, but easily made a thousand times harder if someone wants. Lets hope the nobility is not at odds with the guild. Another possible spawn for problems could be Erin. Anyway lets hope for the best.
Together we walked past the desks filled with mercenaries to one of the free counters. Trying my best to ignore all the stares I was getting. The first time I had been here was different. They had completely ignored me. This time however I wasn’t disguised anymore. I was wearing a my usual armor and my recently acquired executioner sword, even my ears where now visible. I am not sure what drew the attention more, my ears or my armor and weapon that clashed. Erin on the other hand simply ignored the stares, not deeming them worthy of her attention. As usual Erin was the magnet of attention by simply being herself. This time however she wasn’t as effective as usual, mercenaries are much more observant than normal people. They wouldn’t just ignore me because Erin is nearby, this could be a fatal mistake in a case of an attack.
I went to the leftmost counter, behind it was a middle aged woman, neatly dressed in the staffs uniform, a black suit with light blue accents, similar to a butlers clothing but less formal. She looked like a typical mother, soft features large motherly chest and her long brown hair in a simple braid draped over her left shoulder. Back from where I from such a braid was seen as a sign of tragedy, in many stories a mother with such a hairstyle was fated to die, in order to motivate the main character of the tale. The woman had already noticed our approach and prepared some finale things behind the counter, before we arrived.
“Welcome the mercenaries headquarters of Ironwall. How may I help you? Or do you need guidance on the services we offer?”
“Hello thanks for the offer, but I know exactly what I need. First I’d like you to register us, with this certificate I got. And then I’d like a rundown on the more interesting exterminations you have.”
With this I hand her the envelope I got from the butler. Her eyes widen the moment she sees it. She clearly recognized from where its is. Nonetheless she still manages to remain professional and take the envelope. Meanwhile the attention we got from the other mercenaries didn’t decrease in the slightest. They were interested, my demeanor and the envelope piqued their interest, hopefully not in a malevolent way.
The guild lady carefully took the envelope and proceed to open it with care, making sure to keep the damage to the seal to a minimum. Carefully she read through the paper. Suddenly she gasped her eyes widened to an uncanny degree. Something in the letter had caught her completely off guard, so much so that she lost all her professionalism.
“You.. Your the hero Bara!!!..the one that defeated the Sundrake!”
“Yes, also the one from the tale of the princes and the drake. I have come here to register with the guild.”
“Ah! Yes! Yes! Just wait a second.”
She frantically started to work, sneaking nervous glances at me every few seconds. I am a bit surprised that my fame is still this strong so far away from its origin. The moment the lady had spoken my name the mercenaries too got restless. Stealing glances, scanning me from head to toe, whispering among themselves. A reaction I am very familiar with. A reaction that proves that you made it into the books of history. It always feels a bit strange, when you get reminded that you will be known for much longer than you could ever life. A long time, even for my standards, since I have even more time than humans. There are still many years left to expand my legend, hopefully from no till the end together with Erin.
The lady in the meantime had managed to finish her work and regain some of her composure. She handed us two small golden medallions. They were a small hexagon made of a golden medal with a different colored gem in each corner.
“With this you are a special ranked member of the mercenaries guild of Ironwall. You are allowed to take one any work we have, according to the certificates specifications. According to the guild rules the guild leader has to approve hid, but considering your status and the letter consider it already done. As for your question about “interesting extermination” I would advice you to look up the special request and the long standing ones. With that said I welcome you in the guild Warprincess Bara and Erin the Oni!”
The mercenaries broke out into a cheer the moment they heard we were no officially part of the guild. It quickly died down however they weren’t really sure how to handle us. Understandable we simply barged in and became a top dog after all. They were still nice enough to cheer on the arrival of a new top dog. Now it became quit and thus awkward. I too didn’t know how to end this silence so I simply decided to go the board with the special request, maybe they have something interesting there.
While we were looking for an interesting request a group of mercenaries finally decided to make a move. They were a group of four, three men and a woman. They looked fairly young, late twenties early thirties? They all wore some kind of medium armor, made of multiple metals and chainmail, with cloth partially covering them. They looked like rouge knights, who have been through a lot. The metal lacked all shine and was dull, but still masterfully maintained. They carried their helmets in their arms and their weapons on their back and sides. The woman looked the youngest out of the bunch, she had short muddy brown hair and darkened skin, by the suns light, she also wore a set of round glasses. The helmet she was carrying had no visor like a usual knights helmet instead it had a single front plate made of some sort of glass. Besides a small shield and a sword, she carried a typical mages staff around with a red crystal on top. Undoubtedly she was the mage of the group. The three men had much more lighter skin, courtesy of the normal knights helmets they had, with a normal metal visor which covered the front. They looked like average men, your next door neighbor if you will, not like some hero or, random characters in a mange group. Short black and brown hair one even had a beard. They could easily blend into a crowd and not be discovered, their faces lacked any big scars, a sign of luck, skill or expensive treatments. All three of the men had a shield of sorts. The biggest of the three the bearded one had a trident strapped to his back and some knives to his belt. The to other mean uses a simple sword and shield combination.
Mercenaries like these usually take on contracts, which have other humans in them and rarely monsters. Thus their armor and weapons are often made purely out of metal and widely available material. Mercenaries like them are hard to judge, they are either psychos, bigshots, arrogant assholes or the most competent reliable ones you can stumble across. Contrary to the mercenaries, who hunt monsters there is now reliably way to judge them, before it is to late. At least they looked not mentally unhinged on the first glance.
“I have heard you are the Hero Bara, a legend told about in tales for little girls. We would like to see your strength in a duel.”
“Why do you want a duel.”
“Its not every day that you see a hero. So we thought, why not challenge her to a duel to see if the tales are true.”
“With whom do we have the honor of a duel.”
“We are the Dusk Paladins, currently the strongest mercenaries in Ironwall and we’d like to see what heroes are made of.”
“Very well. I grant you the request lets have a duel. Four against two. Lets see if you are made to be heroes some day.”
The mercenaries erupted in cheers. Nothing is better than a friendly duel between them. If they are even in the slightest like the mercenaries back home they already started to make bets them moment the word duel was mentioned.
