After they walked out of the office and closed the door, Aurora heaved a sigh of relief and subconsciously leaned back on the chair, wincing slightly in pain as her back laid on it.

"Captain, are you really okay?"

Seeing this, Blair stepped forward and greeted her with concern.

Aurora took a few deep breaths to suppress the severe pain and waved her hands to indicate that she was fine. With how her mercenary group developed into a group mostly composed of women, they might quickly attract attention in the future. Aurora could already see a headache coming.

"Is the leader worried about something?"

"But it's not a big deal,” Aurora nodded. “Anyway, how could you rope in Miss Janette in the first place? Her background is quite deep.”

Talking about this matter, Blair’s expression turned strange.

"Miss Janette came to me on her own initiative."

"Oh? Tell me in detail." Aurora was also a little curious about this, and soon Blair explained in detail how she met Janette.

On the second night when he arrived in Brigitt City, Janette knocked on his door to visit in person.

"It's really strange, why did someone with such prestige notice you?"

Blair shook his head. "Miss Janette didn't say much about the specifics. She must have learned from somewhere that I was looking for suitable personnel, and then came to the door in person wearing a disguise to inquire about this matter."

"So you agreed right away?" Aurora muttered, rubbing her brows.

From a certain point of view, Blair really had a courage of a lion. Wasn’t he afraid that he would be in a lot of trouble if someone mistook him for kidnapping the marquis’s beloved daughter?

"Well, it’s impossible not to, Captain!" Blair couldn't help but be a little excited: "Miss Janette's strength and talent are well-known in the noble circle; in addition, she also said that she didn’t need any remuneration. How can you refuse a pie falling from the sky right into your face? Can you do it, Captain? Well, I can’t! Having such a powerful mage is something the many mercenary groups can’t even dream of!”

“But so does the problem that could come along.” Aurora sighed.

How could Aurora not understand? Just take a look at the Scarlet Fang. They could stand firmly in the first position in Rosewood Town not only because they had a bunch of well-equipped and well-trained members, but the most important thing was that they had a mage in their ranks.

Presumably this is also one of the major reasons for Blair's decision to accept Janette immediately and without a second thought.

"I can understand your point, but I believe you have seen the situation today, Blair. If it hadn't been for a little accident in our battle, our proud lady would not have bowed her head so easily."

"Yes... I really didn't consider this point." Blair's tone weakened a lot. If he hadn't been too reckless and hadn't carefully considered the consequences of recruiting, Aurora would not have conflicted with Janette, let alone gotten hurt by testing her abilities.

“And what about the other two? It seems that there’s something more to them than meets the eye.”

After reading their status, a doubt arose in her mind. Considering their strength and looks, there was no way that the Players didn’t have any impression of them, especially the smoking-hot Raia, who could easily be one of the most popular NPCs.

“Miss Raia is coming from the Lorca Tribe, which dwells deep in Brusca Mountain near the border. Her reason to join as a mercenary is a little bit… peculiar.” Aurora waved her hands, urging him to continue. He hesitated for a moment before carrying on. “She… she seems to search for a suitable mate, and according to Lorca’s tradition, that person must be someone who is stronger than her. The problem is she seems to prefer a woman to a man as her partner and is quite picky about its selection.”

“Huh? Are you serious?”

Aurora stared dumbfounded at Blair, who was just scratching his cheeks while chuckling dryly.

“And the reason she wanted to join our group is—” Blair filled in her unfinished sentence in a somewhat guilty tone, “—because she heard that there’s a new mercenary group led by a girl looking for new recruits.”

Aurora’s exasperated look turned into a glare as she groaned in a very displeased tone, “So you just sold me out?!”

The fingers that were just scratching on his cheeks were now sliding into the back of his head as Blair gave her an apologetic look, which practically admitted Aurora’s accusation.

“What a headache,” Aurora rubbed her temple, groaning haplessly. “And what about Mia?”

“She had an excellent record with the Mercenary Association, but for some reason kept coming and going on several mercenary groups. On the surface, there’s nothing wrong with her history, and she also has a clean background. But… there are a lot of discrepancies if you look further into her past. I’ve already exerted the most of my channel, but I can’t seem to get the truth.”

“Troublesome bunch.”

“But very capable.”

“That’s exactly the problem.” Aurora once again released a long sigh, feeling more exhausted than in the previous battle. However, they were really in urgent need of more strength, so Aurora couldn’t complain for too long. “Well, we just need to cross the bridge when we get there.”

"Anyway, Blair, there is one more thing I want to ask you."

"Captain, please tell me! As long as I can do it, I will do my best!" Blair immediately cheered up after hearing this, and he made up his mind to finish it flawlessly.

"I hope you can pay close attention to the situation of caravans coming or going from the north side in the past few days and whether there is any information about this type of reward in the Mercenary Association. If there is any abnormal situation, report it to me as soon as possible."

Now that there are new members joining, according to the existing occupations of the mercenary group, they basically meet the conditions for a crusade against Pittman. As long as he is also killed, Aurora is confident that she can at least delay the Republic of Harmonia from launching a war for more than a month.

A lot can be done in this month or so.

"Roger that!"

Blair said solemnly with his hands on his chest, and he left the stronghold soon after accepting Aurora's instructions.

"I hope we can finish it in one fell swoop this time..." Aurora murmured as she crossed her hands in front of the table and closed her eyes.

*

While Aurora met the new members in her base, a dead silence pervaded the Raging Tempest Mercenary Group’s base. All the mercenaries inside were sitting with their heads down. Lying on the floor was an unlucky mercenary who had been chopped in half.

He stared at the scrawny man in disbelief before dying with his eyes wide open. He didn't understand why he was beheaded by his boss just after reporting the situation.

"A bunch of trash."

After a long while, he lightly put down the sword in his hand and said calmly, "I lost more than a dozen brothers all at once, and came here to report it without even knowing what happened. Is your mind full of shit?"

After his words fell for a long time, there was still silence. These usually arrogant mercenaries now shrank their heads inward one by one, for fear of being noticed by their leader and suffering an unjust death.

"Are you all mute?" He looked around, and the heads of these mercenaries lowered even more where his gaze passed. Finally, he looked at the man with a bowed head and wearing a robe not far from him and said, "Bruce, tell me what you have learned."

"Yes!" Bruce bit the bullet and came in front of him.

"According to what we have learned, the mission that Olsen went out to carry out this time is very likely to be a plot."

"A plot? Since when did those guys from Moon Wolf start learning to do something like this?" The scrawny man said coldly.

"It's not Moon Wolf... it's the newly established Glory Mercenary Group..."

Boom!

The scrawny man split the stone table beside him in half with his sword, "How long have I not taken any action, and you've fallen to the point where even a newly formed mercenary group dares to provoke you?!"

"Boss, calm down! This mercenary group is not an ordinary mercenary group. Especially their leader, whose fighting method is very weird. We have never seen such a fighting method before. Olsen suffered a lot under her hands before."

"Very well,” The man grunted in a chilly voice, “I want to see how confident this so-called rookie mercenary group dares to challenge me, Foster!"

The skinny man, the leader of the Raging Tempest Mercenary Group—Foster—officially took over the dispute between the two mercenary groups at this moment. Only their blood could wash away the humiliation suffered by the Raging Tempest Mercenaries.