*Gulp*

As expected of a meal from a home base. It has that home cooked meal feeling.

It's the same kind of food they serve me while on the road though. The only thing different is that I get to eat on solid ground with no worry about a random magic projectile hurtling through the air towards my carriage.

This is a very nice change in the journey. The only thing that would make it better is if the atmosphere isn't this smothering.

It's really hard to eat peacefully while the rest of the base has this solemn atmosphere. I do a few celebratory shouts here and there. I am guessing those must be from the veterans who experienced this over and over before.

"..We will once again say goodbye to our comrades who have fought for our community. To protect this place we call home, to provide for our neighbors we call our family. This risk is known to you and to everyone of us who go out for mercenary work. However, a loss is still a painful experience even for our cause."

The ceremony is already underway. I appreciate the fact that they didn't call me to attend it. It would be awkward for me to join in on it because I don't really personally know any of them. It would also be awkward for them if I refuse the invitation. As long as our temporary relationship isn't tested, we can continue with this escort quest to my village without problem.

"..We dedicate this moment of silence for them and for everything they did to save us. However, we will not fall into depression. We will not let grief strangle our lives. We will pay our respects for their sacrifice, and celebrate the lives they helped save! For our Blue Fin mercenary group!"
"....For our Blue Fin mercenary group!!!" xAll

I say that's a standard speech, nice and short while somewhat uplifting. I'll just leave them to their way of mourning and sleep until morning.

Hopefully the journey will be more manageable from now on and I will arrive at my destination without any more setbacks. I still have bombs to reinstall, so I'll wake up in the morning to do it. I'll just explain to them that I want to examine my cargo while putting the bombs in place.

*Knock* *Knock* *Knock*

"Good morning, sir! Are you ready for our departure?"
"I'm over here."
"Ooh! Good morning, sir! It's good to see you up and about this morning."
"I finished reinstalling the bombs and inspecting the cargo. You can load it up and we can depart."
"I see. Do you mind if we go around and re-check the bombs? I want to make sure everyone is safe during our journey. An accidental explosion would be dangerous on the road."

Tsk, I was kind of hoping that you would look past that. The reason I installed these is to act as a defence for sticky fingers. It won't work if you know the consequences!

These things are supposed to be my early warning system that the mercenaries might be getting tempted!

"Let's do this quickly, I need to start working on my greeting gift for the village mayor."
"I understand, sir. It will only be a moment."

Well, it can't be helped. Let's get this over with. I'll just weld some seams shut to make it impossible for anyone but a blacksmith, and maybe a very forceful blunt object hit, to open.

"Everything seems to be in order, we shall depart as soon as possible. Please wait in your carriage as we finish the preparations."
"Very well, I trust everything is settled."
"Yes! We secured fresh mercenaries and swapped out the injured members. We will perform at peak levels!"

They swap the members, huh. They must have a rotation system to swap out people going outside and defending this base.

I wonder if they have their own training facility here. It would be smart of them to do that, since they would be keeping business within their own community. That would get rid of the trust issues you would get if you have new mercenaries.

"Depart!"
"Ooohh!!!"
"Remember to always watch the surroundings and to never let your guard down. This is a warning and a reminder, especially to the freshly swapped group!"
"Yes, sir!"
"Let's go! Open the gate!"

We are finally leaving. I'll leave that side to you all. I really have to start working on the gift for the village chief.

This is an important procedure to be done if I want to peacefully live in that village. Well, I can live peacefully if I just properly greet the village chief but I want something to make it easier, grease the wheels if you will.

This should make the village chief more enthusiastic in accepting me in the village and maybe help me introduce me to the villagers in a more positive light. I don't really want to interact with others that much but as a blacksmith who is just starting out, I need to have customers.

I have a lot of money to burn, so I can just continuously make weapons or armours without stopping but if I want to take this craft as high as I can, I need to take in requests from others. It's not only creating things for myself, it's to get inspiration and experience from the request of the general public.

It's a good way to make things more challenging and give me problems that I can only have from making something for someone else.

If I forge for myself, I would likely be biased with the product created. Even if I try to be critical about it, there will be some form of slack that I would unintentionally give.

That is why I will remove that slack by making something with other people's specifications.

I can use them to advance myself, I get money and I get renown. This would be what they call 'three potatoes with one pull!!!' kind of a situation.

*Rattle* *Rattle* *Rattle* *Bump!* *Rattle*

Ah, we should be going back to the main road. Their base was a bit away from the main road, so the way there is somewhat rough. They must be maintaining it by themselves but I doubt they would do it regularly. Otherwise, travellers might get lost and arrive at their base by accident.

I trust that outsiders are a big concern for them since they are a mercenary group. You never know which of the grudge holders will send some unknown troublemaker their way after all. They won't enjoy that 'are you an enemy or not' game that would ensue every time they meet someone new, especially if that person wants to stay for the night since they got 'lost'.

Anyway, I wonder what kind of gift would be appropriate for a village chief.

I can easily give a sample of my work but I don't think a weapon or a kitchen tool would be good as a gift from a new resident. It might give me an image of some kind of violent weirdo.

Armour would be good since I can really give them a full show of my skills with intricate designs I can sneak in as decorations. However, it's not very practical. The thing won't get much use in such a remote place. It also won't be such a popular outfit in such a volcanic region too!

I guess I can make some kind of statue, or statuettes of the hero. If I make it made of metal then I can show them how flexible my range of work can be. It does have that gift shop/souvenir kind of feel but I can't really do much about that.

The worst thing I could give is money. I do want to make things easier but I don't want them to think that I am buying my way into the village community they have.

It would be a problem if they rely on me whenever they need money too.

Actually, the souvenir-like toy feels a little too 'tourist-y' as a moving-in gift. The hero is known far and wide in this world, made huge changes to almost every single field, and labeled as the strongest authority that existed. Thus, the amount of items made from them have already been spread to the whole world. I don't think the village would care for another one of those things.

I can expect a 'oh, that's nice' kind of reaction and move on to another thought right after. It won't bring me any disadvantages but it won't bring any benefits either.

"You two at the back!!! Settle down and don't be distracted! We are outside now. This isn't the training field! No one will protect you when you mess up!"
"y-yes sir!" x2

Hmm, Those must be the freshly switched in mercenaries. I didn't know they were fresh even in that department. They should be supplements meant to replace the loss of fighting force but it would be a problem if they are more of a liability than help.

Oh!! I thought of a good gift! If the place is a village then there should be some younglings in the place. They wouldn't really support most of them to leave the village, since they want the village to continue existing.

I could check the situation in that department and make some appropriate tools to help them. Farming tools for the agricultural children, armour or weapons for the defence forces' children, and other tools to help the others in their preferred field.

This would be my way to showcase my skills and show them what I can bring to their little community. The children would be happy, the parents would be very grateful to me, and the village chief would be endlessly appreciative for the development of the lands.

This is the gift I decided to give them. However, I need to make it somewhat low quality, a teaser if you will. If I give them some high quality tools that would last them for generations, then they wouldn't use my workshop for some time.

I have to give them something very good in their eyes but somewhat flawed in mine. This would make the next time they ask me to forge something look like I improved as time went by.

Now that 'that' is decided, I need to go on making it. However, the problem is that I can't make it on the way there. There isn't that much I can do since I don't have any information about the village except it's location.

Should I give them vouchers or some kind of gift ticket? However, there is a chance that they would use it for something else.

There is also a chance that they would use it for a big project that would take too much of an effort from me. I don't want that to happen since making some random junk for their children is easy and would cost less.

I guess I can give the gift after I move in and settle everything. That should be ideal for me.

I'll finish building the house, decorate the place, place traps and then go around the village to give my introduction gifts.