Karato expounded on his statement.

“You’re going to be leading the searching expedition when you arrive there. The Red Sparrows will be responsible for looking after you during your travel and when you’re looking for the iron. They’ll not be harvesting any iron but focusing on protecting you and keeping you alive so that you can focus on collection. Do you have any questions up to this point?”

“Are we forgetting about the small issue of the goblins and ogre incursion into the forest?”

“Good question, and the answer is no. We believe following the latest attack, the monsters retreated to the interior of the Blister Oak Forest, however… they’re still active in a lesser capacity and it’s possible to run into monster scouting parties, which is why the Red Sparrows are joining you. They’re an Intermediate level adventurer party and one of the best parties for this quest. Even then, you’ll be taking a roundabout route by travelling on the outskirts of the forest, first heading north along the main road to Aryonne, then cutting north-east to the marshland. Hopefully by taking that route, you should avoid any serious incidents with monsters.”

Cortez, the logistics coordinator of the Red Sparrows then described the logistics around carting goods with one cart, two horses, and how food would be distributed. There were a few questions and when the discussions ended, Karato asked if everyone was happy with the arrangements.

“Before Hana and I agree to take on this quest, I’m going to ask everyone to agree to a non-disclosure agreement, effective as soon as we all sign. Once we've done that and we've completed the quest, I'd like to return to Obon via the Wildemere marshlands.”

I threw a small spanner in the works. Judging by the looks on the Red Sparrow’s faces, they weren’t expecting that. Tobias was the first to ask the obvious.

“Why would you want that?”

“After our last battle with the monsters in the Blister Oak Forest, I’ve realised the only way we’re going to be successful at this, is if the Red Sparrows agree to my request.”

Karato thought about it. It was logical, if the storage rings he handed out to the Harpies and the Smashing Rabbits had to do with buying their silence, then a non-disclosure agreement would negate the need to do the same in that case. He didn’t hesitate.

“Concerning the nondisclosure agreement, the palace agrees. In fact, I would go so far as to insist on it. I'm not so sure about going to Obon though.”

Everyone, including me, stared at Karato’s. I didn’t expect so little pushback and certainly not such a quick response. Tobias shrugged his shoulders.

“A nondisclosure agreement makes no difference to us, if that’s going to make it easier to cooperate, then we’re in. On the other hand, we planned to go to Obon at some stage to delve into the Adios dungeon so we could easily adapt to going there.”

Olivia stood up from the table and spoke.

“Excuse me then, I’ll get the parchments in order, and I’ll meet you here soon to sign.”

While we waited Karato raised another issue.

“Hey Shane, I assume that you’re going to stay in Obon?”

“For the moment, there are things I want to prepare with winter coming.”

Karato didn’t pursue the question further as I thought he might. Instead, he changed the subject.

“I take it that you’re going to be sparring tomorrow morning. His majesty would like to continue his visit with you. He apologises for the short visit last time.”

Hana interjected and reminded me of another thing.

“Remember your morning arrangement with Mr. Papadopoulos.”

I had totally forgotten about that. It left me with a dilemma. I was supposed to meet Mr. Papadopoulos on that morning to deliver the rest of the rocks. Whatever happened, I couldn’t turn down the king’s invitation and I was committed to the rock delivery. I had to appease the king first.

“We’ll be there.”

Karato smiled and seemed happy with that. Olivia turned up soon afterwards and finalised the non-disclosure agreement with everyone in the room, including Karato. Olivia smiled and stood there holding onto the completed document.

“And you?”

Said Karato.

“Huh, me?”

If you’re going to be around us at any time, it would be best to sign on. Karato nodded and Olivia reluctantly signed her name to the parchment. It was obvious she didn’t like to keep secrets, she probably liked to gossip to her friends about the things that happened, especially about the recent events. Karato smiled at her dilemma.

“Don’t worry, I’ll let the guild leader know you signed a confidentiality agreement.”

“Thanks, I didn’t know how I was going to tell him about this. What exactly are we being confidential about?”

“I’ll answer that for you. But first, I want to negotiate what is going to happen to any monster subjugation materials?”

Tobias didn’t flinch, he was an old pro in negotiations. It made so much more sense, seeing him as the leader an adventurer group and not the supply shop assistant. No wonder he waxed so lyrical about the armour, he practically worked in the stuff every day.

“Any monster subjugation evidence will be retained by the Red Sparrows as added payment for your protection.”

Tobias was a hard hitter when it came to negotiations, he liked to aim high. He wasn’t expecting to deal with anything larger than a goblin, and he was expecting to do all the subjugations, so he didn’t claim any monster materials. Unfortunately for him, he didn’t have all the information to make the best call.

“Very well, I’m happy with that and you Karato?”

“I’m fine with it.”

“Then I’m claiming all monster materials remaining once you’ve removed your subjugation evidence.”

“Huh? How are you intending to do that? There isn’t enough place on the cart for any monster materials.”

I opened a pocket dimension storage in the room and took out a few items.

“What the…is that a storage device?”

Everyone gasped. Everyone except Hana naturally, but Karato seemed underwhelmed for some reason. I wondered if he was already familiar with a storage ring.

“Yes, it’s a storage ring. It’s one of the things that will help us survive out there.”

That’s when Tobias stepped forward.

“Shane, let me be frank with you. The Red Sparrows don’t keep any secrets from each other, it’s one of the reasons we’ve survived for as long as we have. Please don’t do anything that affects my team without my permission and if you have anything that can make us successful in this quest, I’d like to know well in advance.”

Was he being difficult because I kept that information from him?

“It’s not that I’m keeping things from you Tobias. I’ll do my best to let you know in advance and I want us to succeed. Not everything is going to be told to you in advance, and I don’t think everything I know will be to your advantage either. I’ll promise to tell you everything that is pertinent to our situation.”

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

There was no point in creating needles hostilities. The logistics around finding the marsh iron was daunting enough and there were going to be many challenges. We needed to get into the deeper water, but from what Karato explained, there was no raised ground or trees in the marsh that one could rest on. Although we could rest on a wagon while in the water, a horse didn’t have that luxury and after standing in the water day after day, they would eventually succumb to exhaustion. That was if we could even operate a wagon through the mud of the marsh, which I seriously doubted. I had a plan I could use to overcome those difficulties, but I would first have to confirm the conditions at the marsh and make a call once we arrived there.

Another point, the quest contract didn’t specify the amount of harvested ore, nor what would happen to any other materials found there.

Tobias laughed.

“Don’t sweat it kid. You can ask the others, I like to talk tough in negotiations, but actually I’m a real softy.”

The others in the Red Sparrow started laughing as well. They obviously knew him well enough to know he was telling the truth. Corey came up to Hana and said,

“I’m looking forward to getting to know you better. That’s a nice bow you have there too.”

Hana looked like a rabbit in a car’s headlights. Slaves weren’t encouraged to have interpersonal relationships so Hana still needed to adjust to social interactions.

“I…I…I’m glad.”

Was that all she could say? I on the other hand still wanted to sort out one more thing.

“Since the red Sparrows are now aware of my transfer storage, I have another selfish request for the Red Sparrows and I'll understand if you decide not to help me with this one. If we going to Obon I would like to take the Obon resupply quest of the board. Since I now have an intermediate ability ranking, I would like to add that quest to this one.”

“I'm assuming you're not going to be able to stuff all those supplies into one transfer storage, correct? Then just how are you going to get all those cart loads of goods to Obon?”

Tobias asked the natural question. The red Sparrows understood the details for that quest as well as I did. Their logic told that that hauling cart loads of goods along with us on a quest to the Wildemere marshlands was impractical. Not only couldn’t we afford more adventurer protection, the carts would need to stay on shore while we operated in the marshlands, not a practical situation.

“Good question, I have another form of storage that I can use. It's something new that you haven't seen or heard of before. I call a transfer storage and I'll explain it to you one day but right now I'll ask you to trust me and give me a rain cheque on that.”

“Rain cheque? What's that?”

“Never mind, just a term from where I come from.”

There I was using earthly terms again.

“You're a strange man Mr Karosaki. You’re full of surprises. I suspect this quest is going to be anything but ordinary. Very well, we are willing to include that quest, but if you fail to deliver, we'll be expecting you to pay the penalty fee.”

I had no problem with their demand. When the meeting finished, we left with Olivia and the Red Sparrows. I had a feeling it was going to be an interesting day. I got a plaintive message from Grenfell via a courier. He complained all hell was breaking loose because people were arriving in droves looking to get their equipment sorted for free. When I arrived at his workshop, I got a grilling from him about how we weren’t a bloody charity organisation, in his words. I never realised how many people wanted their tools sharpened. No wonder Mr. Papadopoulos never questioned my offer. Hana and I worked ourselves silly for the rest of the day, she learned sharpening while I reinforced the tool’s blade edges. Perhaps she started to regret our relationship.

The next morning while it was still dark, I had the unpleasant job of waking Hana up. Her face looked so beautiful while she slept and I realised she worked hard the day before. I took a good look at her slave collar; I’d do anything to remove that terrible thing from her.

It was good advice. I’d start investigating that later but at that moment I had a less appetising task of waking Hana. When I did, she promptly complained about the early time and returned to sleep.

“I told you we were going to be moving early this morning. Come let’s get going.”

I grabbed her sheets and shook them vigorously, causing cold air to shift along her warm body. She shuddered and gave me the evil eye, but I didn’t budge and started getting ready. We suffered together.

The trouble with reaching the eastern gate from the western side of the city the size of Shimmerstal was the time it took to get there. Shimmerstal’s streets were not long and straight boulevards. They tended to be convoluted and if that wasn’t problematic enough, the guards at the various gates would not allow unauthorised movement between city areas at unusual times.

When we approached the guards from the inner wall portico gates, I had mixed feelings about approaching the guards. On the one side I was concerned if the guards would see us as a threat or perhaps as an interesting event to break the monotony of the graveyard shift. Fortunately for us the latter proved the case and a familiar face looked at me through the portico gates.

“Hi Shane, long time no see. What brings you to the gate at such odd hours of the morning?”

I laughed it was Rodergurn,

“Hi Rodergurn, it's good to see you again. Sorry to bother you this time in the morning but I need to get to the eastern gate as soon as possible. I've got a delivery to make to someone.”

“Strange time of the morning to be doing deliveries wouldn't you say?”

Rodergurn wasn't being rude to me, after all he had a valid question, and it was his job to ask them. I explained the situation behind the deliveries I had to make and Rodergurn scratched his chin as he thought.

“Mr Papadopoulos eh? Why didn't you say so in the first place? The guards still owe him for the goblin meat we got the other day. Came out of the blue it did. Yeah, no problem you can go through. I suggest when you get the outer eastern gate, just mention my name and tell them I said to send you through. If they give you any problems tell them you're the guy that fixed the portico gates the other day.”

I didn't want to tell Rodergurn that we were the suppliers of the goblin meat. I felt like I would be robbing Mr Papadopoulos of some of his kudos points with the guards.

Something must have worked, because when I relayed that information to the guards on the eastern gate, they ushered us straight through and I was able to deliver the rock piles well before sunrise. I knew no one would touch the rock piles just like I knew Mr Papadopoulos would be there on time. We left there and headed back to the palace, arriving just in time to start practice.

Once again, the king made an appearance. Together with Karato and Hana they kick my sorry ass to the point of exhaustion. Give me an ogre any day. Once we were done, we skipped the breakfast and headed straight into the King's office.

“I just want to apologise to you Shane and Hana about my strange behaviour the last time we met. Our discussion brought up a lot of memories I thought I had forgotten that soon realised I still needed to deal with. However, I'd like to continue our conversation and perhaps it's a good opportunity to catch up again. I understand that both of you found something that you liked from the stores, are you happy with those items?”

Hana answered the king,

“Yes Greg, we're quite happy with items I've already used my bow a few times against monsters.”

“Really? Please tell me about it, I'm quite curious.”

Hana explained the events that led to us running from the monsters during our quest. King Leopold listened and never interrupted us once he seemed fascinated with her story. I got the distinct impression he thoroughly enjoyed her rendition because when she was done, he said back on his chair with an audible sigh.

“That's quite a story. How many ogre generals have you killed now Shane?”

The King laughed.

“Three I believe. I seem to be making a habit of it.”

“Do you realise Shane it normally takes nothing less than a platoon of men to take down an ogre general? And even then, we could expect many casualties on our side. Yet somehow you sail through them as if you do it every day. I know you've selected some items out of the treasure store, but I still feel like we should be doing something for you.”

I scratch my head. There was something I wanted to ask but I wasn't sure if it was something that you would ask from somebody like a king. But I couldn't shake the feeling that my dad would have had something to say in the situation although I couldn't think of one right at that moment. I guess it was a case of nothing ventured nothing gained.

“Well, there’s one thing I would like to ask your advice on.”

“Oh?”

I think I had the King intrigued it wasn't often that people asked him for his advice.

“Recently I've entered into a small business agreement with somebody in the labour guild. It involves making good quality stone paving with materials I managed to bring back from the battle that Hana described to you. My business partner, Mr. Papadopoulos from the labour guild, thinks there is good future opportunity in mining more of this material. My problem is I have no idea what approval process is required to be able to mine that mesa.”

“What you need is a mining permit. Only nobles can issue permits in their respective regions and from Hana's description I would say you are looking to mine in the Hull estate. Nobles are not in the habit of issuing mining permits to private individuals, and if they do, the nobles will claim a high percentage of the profits. That alone would probably make your venture nonprofitable.”

What the king was telling me in a nutshell, was that I didn't have much hope of securing a mining permit. Basically, the nobles controlled all the mining in the territory with all profits going directly to them. I couldn't complain, that was just the way things happened there. But the king wasn't finished.

“I'll tell you what, let me investigate, perhaps there is something I can do for you.”

That was the best offer I could expect under those circumstances.

“Thank you Greg. I would appreciate anything you could do for us in that regard.”

The King waved his hand in a dismissive way.

“It is a small thing for me. I am just glad I can return the favour.”

I think the king underplayed what my request would cost him. The political situation Grenfell described to me was that the King and the nobles didn't get on very well with each other. I didn't want to get more involved in that situation, so I didn't pry any further.