I woke up in my room.

Chizze was asleep beside me; this time, she was the one hugging me. Even though she was sleeping, she looked somewhat tired.

I think I worried her too much.

“You’re awake. Let me guess: you overused your regenerative magic, ran out of vitality, and collapsed… You’re so pathetic that you couldn’t even ask me for help.” The elf says these words with an angry face.

Raiza approaches my bed and takes my right hand with her left.

“Come on, do it quickly. You don’t want to worry Chizze any more.” I use my degenerative magic on Raiza and recover my vitality.

“Thanks, Raiza, for letting me handle this. I want to be useful to the group.”

Raiza gives me a gentle tap on the forehead and says, “Wow, you really are an idiot. This group exists because of you; without your intervention, we wouldn’t even have met. Now wake up Chizze; lunch is ready.”

Raiza prepared extra-large spicy meat rolls for all of us. Once we were awake, Chizze and I took a seat.

I was quite hungry, so while eating one of the rolls, I asked Raiza, “Hey, cooking expert elf, how long was I asleep?”

“It was three days.”

I almost choked on the roll. I took some water, swallowed the food, and said, “Wow, I missed my appointment with Rammus after all the trouble I went through to catch that damn brat.”

I quickly finished my meal and ran toward the guild.

At my house’s door, I ran into William’s father.

“Wait, what are you doing here? If you’re looking for William, he’s not with me.”

The man replies, “Don’t worry, I’ve had time to digest everything that happened. I know it’s a bit late, but thank you very much for helping my family.” The man looks down, somewhat embarrassed.

“I was just doing my job in the most convenient way for me; you don’t owe me anything.”

“You’re mistaken, boss. You hired me to clean your house, didn’t you forget?”

It’s true, I didn’t remember giving him some silver coins. I think it will be convenient. I hired gardening and pool services, but there’s a lot of trash in the house. Raiza is a good cook, but the kitchen is a mess…

“By the way, boss, I brought you a letter from Mr. Rammus Esskobar. I went to ask about you at the guild and met Mr. Rammus. He told me where you lived and to deliver this letter.”

The man hands me the letter. “Well, since you’re here, come in and meet my companions.”

At that moment, I noticed that William’s siblings were also accompanying their father.

“Hi, big brother. I hope you don’t mind that we came with dad.” I pat the kids’ heads and invite them in.

Once all my companions are gathered in the living room, I say,

“Well, girls, I know you’ve noticed that this house is very dirty. That’s why I took the trouble to hire…” I whisper in William’s father’s ear, “Hey, what’s your name?”

“My name is Trevor, boss.”

“As I was saying, I took the trouble to hire Trevor. He will take care of cleaning the house and will come every two days to clean it, along with his children. Please, be kind to them.”

Ignoring my words, Raiza approaches the children.

“Kids, I just made spicy rolls; I think you two must be hungry. Let’s eat outside by the pool so that dad can clean the house in peace.”

My three companions head to the pool while I stay alone with Trevor.

“Well, boss, I’ll start by cleaning the kitchen.”

I’m left alone in the living room, so I sit on the sofa and read the letter Rammus sent me.

Hello, little priest:

I heard about the scene you made at the casino.

The manager of that place was scared out of his wits; the son of a bitch stole the money from the casino’s safe and fled the city.

Thanks to you, my guild has more work. Well done, Ester.

You’re probably wondering how I knew where you lived to deliver this letter. It turns out that the cart driver who took you home was a friend of mine and told me that you fainted.

I suppose the beating you took was worse than I thought… So I guess you missed our meeting because you had a really heavy sleep, sleepyhead.

And assuming you’re still alive to read this, I’ll be waiting for you at the guild; just don’t take too long since I have more work for you.

By the way, you’re hired now, although I can’t pay you for the work you just did because you were an intern. Too bad, guild rules. Anyway, I’ll see you in my office.

With love, signed Rammus.

Wow, that guy can be really annoying. Although now I can relax, I suppose I could go to the pool for a while.

I deserve it. I go to my room and look for a swimsuit among my things to go for a swim.

Once ready, I went out to the yard and saw Raiza playing with the kids while Chizze and Kharla ate meat buns by the pool.

“Hey, girls, good news: I’m officially a guild mercenary now.”

“Congratulations, Master!” said the beast woman.

“Good job, Mr. Ester!” added the girl with white hair.

If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

“Kids, to swim, you need to move your legs faster and don’t be afraid to swallow a bit of water.”

Raiza was so busy teaching the kids how to swim that she didn’t pay attention to me. Well, it’s fine. I gain some speed and jump into the pool. By the Goddess, the water is so refreshing. I always wanted to have a pool…

“Wow, this is the life…”

We spent the entire afternoon playing in the pool while Trevor cleaned the house.

When we went inside, it was just as we had bought it, if not better: living room tidy, rooms with clean sheets. He had also washed all the dirty laundry and prepared the snack: a duck stew with salad.

We sat at the table, and Trevor said, “I hope you liked my work. I’ll be back in two days. Thank you for taking care of my kids.”

“Yes, thank you very much, brother.”

“See you in two days, brother.”

I thought about stopping them, but Kharla spoke up first:

“Wait, if you want, you can eat with us. This house’s table is big enough for two more people. I also made plenty of food, and not everyone eats as much as Chizze…”

“What did you say about Chizze? Just so you know, Chizze eats only what’s necessary to stay strong.” I interrupted these two fools before the argument could escalate:

“Trevor, please, sit with us before they start fighting.”

“Thank you very much, boss.” From that day on, Trevor and his kids became part of our home.

…

The day after officially hiring Trevor, I headed to the mercenary guild.

I approached the reception.

“You must be Mr. Ester. Rammus is currently in a meeting; you can wait for him in the reception.”

I followed the guild receptionist’s instructions and waited for Rammus to be free. After half an hour, I heard a voice talking to me…

“Ester, it’s good to see you’re still alive. I nearly shit myself when I heard you collapsed. Good thing you were already at home.”

It was Rammus with his usual sarcastic attitude, but I also noticed he wasn’t alone.

“Ester, let me introduce you to Fernnanda Abrahán from Abraham Company, the ones who sell medicines and have some apothecaries in the city.”

So it was true that the Khisphe mercenary guild collaborates with the big companies in the country.

“Nice to meet you, Miss Fernnanda.”

“The pleasure is all mine. I heard you kicked the casino manager out.”

image [https://cdna.artstation.com/p/assets/images/images/078/738/952/large/duval-saul-324434343234.jpg?1722954325]

Miss Fernnanda Abrahán was a beautiful woman with dark blue hair.

She was short but had a good figure. She wore a very short top that showed off her cleavage, abdomen, and shoulders, and short pants that accentuated her buttocks and displayed her legs.

Additionally, she had tattoos on her shoulders, abdomen, and hips that gave her a very erotic aura. I think she was one of the most beautiful women I have ever seen in my life.

“Not at all, Miss Fernnanda. I just went to find a debtor at the casino. I suppose the casino manager fled to avoid more trouble.”

Rammus, interrupting our conversation, says: “Well, let’s cut the chit-chat. We’ll talk later, Fernnanda. Now I’ll tell Ester the details of the job you need.”

“Thanks, Rammus. Anyway, it was a pleasure meeting you, Ester. We’ll see each other another day.”

I don’t know if it was my imagination, but I felt like she winked at me.

Setting my fantasies aside, I followed Rammus to his office. He handed me my guild license and swapped my intern badge for an employee badge.

“Congratulations, Ester. You’ve finally become a mercenary. I’d invite you to celebrate, but I know you don’t care about this job. What you want is to go with your girlfriends to the Dredprism Empire and live the comfortable life of a first-world country. But this job gets you one step closer to that goal.”

Wow, he’s starting to annoy me with his attitude, but since he’s my boss, I have to endure his nonsense.

“But anyway, Ester… I want you to know that I’ll help you, although I need to make my profit before sending you to Dredprism and never seeing you again. That’s what I was waiting for. You’ll need to cross the border, but you’ll have to do it alone.

You’ll be carrying a shipment of medicinal herbs, but your real mission will be to treat patients who are high-ranking military personnel from Dredprism. Apparently, they arrived very badly wounded from the war zone…

They were sent to a hospital across the border. I think their closest family lives there.

Anyway, they specifically went to that hospital to receive treatment for post-traumatic stress… that is, they need their minds healed…

We received that request. Although we didn’t have anyone capable of doing that until I met you.

You know, I’m a person who believes in miracles, but I also believe in death. That’s why I pray to both the Goddess who gives life and to Santa Muerte who takes it away.

When I met you, I was in the church telling the Goddess about this little problem, and then I heard you making your donations and thought it was a divine sign… So tell me, Ester, can you help me heal the minds of those soldiers or were my prayers in vain?”

This guy is definitely a religious fanatic. I’m sure of it now. “Rammus, if it turns out you’re right and I can heal them, my friends might cross the border with me.”

“Of course, Ester. And if I’m lying, I’ll give you permission to do to me what you did to the casino manager.”

I took a deep breath and said, “Alright, I’ll heal those soldiers, but don’t forget your promise.”

“Sure, but I suppose your friends don’t have the proper documentation to cross the border. I know a guy who can make documents identical to the originals, but it’s expensive. I think it was 25 gold for each. Let me know if you’re interested because it takes time to make them.”

“Yes, I want three documents. Just make them for a beast woman, a human, and a half-elf. Fill in all the other details yourself.”

“Of course, Ester. Count on me. They’ll be ready by the time you return from Dredprism. Just have the money ready. I wouldn’t like there to be debts between friends.”

I glared at Rammus and said, “Perfect. I like that way of thinking. Just have the change for a platinum coin ready, as I wouldn’t want there to be debts between friends.”

Rammus kept smiling at my attempt to intimidate and handed me a sheet with the mission details.

…

When I left the Mercenaries’ Guild, I headed to the Merchants’ Guild. That conversation reminded me that they owed me 50 gold coins. As was customary, only one of the four customer service counters was operational; I think it's a local custom.

When it was my turn, I went and showed the voucher for the 50 gold coins.

“You must be Mr. Ester. The guild supervisor, Olivia, is expecting you.” So her name was Olivia.

I followed the receptionist’s instructions and went to Olivia’s office.

“Oh, it’s you, Ester. You came for your gold coins. Have a seat, or are you in a hurry to leave?”

I replied, “For now, I’m just preparing for some work, as I recently joined the Mercenaries’ Guild.”

Olivia made a disgusted face and said, “So you work for Rammus. I guess he’s already told you about me.” I don’t know what she’s talking about; Rammus never mentioned this woman to me.

“So that idiot doesn’t usually talk much about his beautiful wife.” Damn, I guess my face is easy to read. I made her angry. I need to say something to calm her down...

“Wait, Miss Olivia. Mr. Rammus doesn’t usually talk much about his private life, but... but... he did say he was married to a beautiful woman. But I never imagined it would be the supervisor of the Merchants’ Guild…”

“So that was it. I’m glad, for a moment I thought my Rammus was pretending to be a single man. Hahaha. Well, Ester, I’ve prepared your payment. If you want, you can count the coins to make sure they are all there.”

“Don’t worry, I would never distrust the sweet wife of my boss. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to prepare for my trip.”

I took my coins and left the Merchants’ Guild.

As I exited the guild, I passed by a store with a discount on children’s clothing. It seemed to be second-hand, although it looked very good.

I thought of Trevor’s children and decided to buy them some clothes as a gift.