I swallowed hard.

“Witch Hunters?” I asked in a low voice. “What are they doing here??”

Before Rana could reply, the clerk returned with the reward for the twenty-one goblin trophies we had delivered. A few of the bodies had been so thoroughly crushed by Kabanenoki that it was impossible to retrieve any meaningful trophies from them.

“Your total reward is eighteen silver crowns,” said the clerk. The Representative who had received the trophies and quest flier nodded in agreement.

“I thought it was only fifty copper crowns per kill,” I remarked.

“That is indeed the normal reward for green goblins, but blue goblins are worth two silvers and red ones are worth five.”

Rana looked at the pale dark-haired Representative with an intense stare, before raising her voice and saying, “I think it would be a good idea to raise the Quest Rank to Seeker. The presence of evolved goblins is usually a sign that there are also hobgoblins among them.”

The lady returned her intense stare, then sighed. “We were afraid of that. It seems the northern tribes have left Lacksmey to terrorise Arley, though for what reason no one knows…”

“There was just recently a Hobgoblin Lord near Lundia,” Rana replied.

“Indeed. Which is practically unheard of… these are truly troubling times we are heading into. In the past, it was only the south of Arley that was troubled by goblin tribes. Regardless, thank you for your honest assessment Ms. Thorn. I will raise your worries with our leadership and withdraw the Quest until a conclusion has been reached.”

Rana nodded curtly. “Thank you.”

After taking the eighteen silver coins and retrieving our Guild Cards, we made to leave the Guild Hall. I was glad to be getting out, since the presence of the Witch Hunters was deeply unnerving to me. Just in case, I invoked my Watcher.

Sumi, follow the Witch Hunters.

I felt a faint sap of my remaining embers of energy as the familiar silently obeyed, floating off through the wall of the Adventurers’ Guild building. I briefly shared its vision and saw that it was looking down at the three Witch Hunters from the first-floor balcony.

“We made a lot of money today!” Lukas said excitedly. I suppose that to him it was quite a lot of money, since I doubted he was paid much when he worked at the Margrave’s Castle.

“If you consider that it should be split three ways, then it is actually not that much,” Rana replied. “The risk-to-reward is greatly skewed. They basically incentivise us Adventurers to kill as many goblins as possible, and teach us that the more dangerous types, like the blue and red ones, are worth hunting. Trust me on this, that way leads only death.”

“I thought we did really well,” he replied, his excitement deflated.

“If not for me, you and Ryūta would have died,” she said matter-of-factly.

“That’s not—”

“She’s telling the truth,” I interrupted him before he could argue the point. “I overextended myself by using my familiar and you would have been injured or killed by a crossbow bolt if not for Rana.”

“I’ll do better next time!”

“That’s not the point,” Rana told him calmly. “We have to learn to balance the risk with the reward. Sometimes, as in the case of this goblin quest, we should have observed that they had evolved goblins among their ranks, returned to the Guild with the information, and then have waited for the quest to have a higher reward attached.”

“Wouldn’t that raise the potential for civilians to be injured or killed?” I interjected.

“Unfortunately, when it comes to something like this, we have to be cognisant of what we are capable of, and, if you think about it, had we managed to wipe out both nests, we would only have been paid ten silver crowns… Sometimes you have to focus on yourself. Playing hero will only lead to your own suffering.”

“That might be the bleakest thing I’ve heard you say yet,” I told her.

“It’s merely the truth.”

At times like these she could be very confident and argumentative, like back when I suggested that Lukas take the Role Assignment.

I let out a sigh. “Perhaps taking on Exorcisms is the best option. Never thought I’d actually say that out loud…”

“That’s only true if we stick with the Adventurers’ Guild,” she answered.

“What do you mean?”

“I’m saying that we should look at the Mercenary Guild and their contracts.”

“Wouldn’t I be useless for that,” I asked.

“Your familiar can protect other people, can’t it?”

I nodded.

“That means you effectively have an invisible bodyguard to use for any contracts where someone needs protection.”

“I guess that makes some sense. So, how do we go about joining the Mercenary Guild?”

Rana smiled, “I’ll show you.”

The Mercenary Guild of Ochre looked like a small fortress of stone. It even had a moat full of small fish and turtles surrounding it, with a single bridge connected to its entrance.

“Decades ago, this building was where the Lord of Ochre lived,” Rana explained without me needing to ask.

After crossing the bridge and walking through the four-metre-tall gate, we came into an interior space that looked pretty much identical to the Lundia version: a large central hall that was sparsely decorated; a wide counter where contracts were drawn out by one of the three Guild Clerks present; and a tavern-esque part that seemed present in all the Guilds, regardless of affiliation and purpose.

There was nobody within the Hall aside from the Clerks in their outfits of dark-blue shirts, black ties, and grey dress pants, all three of which seemed to be sleeping on their feet. Upon seeing us enter, the rightmost Clerk let out a surprised sound that awoke his fellows.

Rana led us to the wide counter, where she said, “These two would like to join the Mercenary Guild.”

“Of course! Do you already have soul-stone Cards from the Adventurers’ Guild or will you be requiring them to be made?”

“They both have Cards,” she answered.

“Why is there no one here?” I asked.

The leftmost Clerk, a tan woman with long blonde hair, sighed in frustration. “Everyone left a few weeks ago when all the trouble started in the Port District…”

I frowned, but then remembered what Rana had said earlier. They were just looking out for themselves and didn’t want to play heroes. Besides, I doubted there’d be many contracts available in a city besieged by a Demon and its wraith army, since the Mercenary Guild relied on people wanting to hire their members.

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Rana began asking the first Clerk about what sort of contracts they had available, while Lukas and I dealt with the other two respectively.

The long-haired blonde woman looked at my Guild Card and then said, “Haven’t seen any Exorcist Mercenaries before.”

Although I was bluffing mostly, I replied, “I use my familiars as bodyguards.”

Her face paled slightly, but then she regained her composure and nodded curtly. I suppose the reaction was fair, given that ordinary people couldn’t see my familiars and their imaginations probably weren’t doing them any favours when they thought about invisible monsters at an Exorcist’s disposal…

Using a soul-stone tablet, the two Clerks seemed to copy the information on our Guild Cards, such that we were registered in their ‘system’ as well. Additionally, we were each given a playing-card-sized thin wafer of soul-stone that had our basic information and the Mercenary Guild’s insignia. I remembered seeing Rana show a similar thing when we had first signed the contract with her in Lundia, but hadn’t thought much of it since then.

image [https://i.imgur.com/hCpLNgm.png]

“Does my Adventurers’ Guild Rank carry over?” I asked in surprise, when I saw the information.

“We do not question their Rank promotions, although Ranks have little bearing on the type of contracts you might accept from our Guild, unless you are dealing with unique clients and we deem you too inexperienced. If a client wishes to hire you, that is their prerogative and we do not generally impede this process. This means that your reputation matters more than your Rank, as well as your Role. We most often see clients hiring Paladins, Vanguards, and Rangers, as they are deemed the most reliable.”

“I’m guessing no one asks for Exorcists,” I replied.

“They do not,” she confirmed. “But, since your party includes a competent and reputable Vanguard, you ought to still find willing clients. Particularly in Ochre at the moment, as we are short-staffed on Mercenaries.”

“Did you find any worthwhile contracts?” I asked Rana as we were walking to the Church that lay in the Port District. I needed to buy Sinner’s Ash to refill my pouch, especially since I’d realised how useful it was in countering illusions. Given that neither Rana nor Lukas knew where to get specialised Exorcist tools from, I decided to go straight to the source, hence the Church we were heading for.

“There were a few contracts for ship captains that wanted guards to fight off potential pirate attacks, but I’ve tried such a contract in the past and it was miserable, plus they only pay about twenty silvers for a forty-day trip, granted lodging and food is included, but what they mean by ‘food’ is usually hardtack and watered-down ale.”

“Any other ones that we might actually want?”

“Aside from the ship guard ones, there were three escort contracts out of town. One was a merchant heading back to Lundia, another was similar but heading to Helmstatter, and the last was a woman heading to Helmstatter by herself.”

“Master Owl did say we ought to head for Helmstatter,” I mused.

“In that case, we should pick the contract with the lone woman,” Rana remarked. “The merchant one gives off bad vibes.”

“How so?” I asked as we walked under the archway into the Port District. As usual, Lukas was off in his own world, though still keeping pace with us.

“First off, it’s paying three gold crowns…”

I blinked in surprise. “That’s a lot.”

“Yeah.”

“And?”

“It would normally only be thirty-to-fifty silvers for such a trip, even if it was a small convoy. Whenever they offer up too much money as a reward, it usually means one of two things: you’re getting scammed or you’re being paid to keep a secret.”

“Why? What are they transporting? And why now?”

“It could be a lot of things: slaves, euphorics, illegal artefacts, forbidden texts, monsters, etc. As for ‘why now’, that probably just comes down to the fact that they haven’t been able to access their cargo from whichever ship brought it to Ochre, due to the cordon placed around the Port.”

I mulled it over in my head. I shouldn’t be surprised that such people existed in this world, given everything else I’d already seen, but it was yet another stark reminder that this world was not as forgiving as my own. Although, as I thought that, I realised that smuggling and human trafficking existed, even in Japan...

As I looked around the piers, seeing all the guards still stationed here, despite the cordon having been lifted, I couldn’t help but ask, “How are they getting whatever illegal cargo they have out of the city unnoticed?”

“If they’re the hush-money type, then they have enough coin to bribe their way out; otherwise they’ll usually cause a distraction or make a break for it, though that rarely ends well.”

“You seem to know a lot about this stuff,” I commented.

“As an Adventurer you learn how to handle monsters; as a Mercenary it’s not much different, although most of the monsters involved wear human faces…”

The Church of Ochre lay on the very fringe of the Port District, its belltower like a lighthouse for the ships travelling to the harbour. Unlike the rest of the city, it had been built from a pearlescent-white stone and had a front building shaped like a half-moon, behind which the belltower sprouted from. A wall of the same pearlescent stone surrounded its expansive graveyard that was full of rectangular three-metre-tall marble monoliths into the shelves of which were placed the urns of deceased, with small plaques stating their names, and dates of birth and death.

It was the first time I’d seen current or recent years written down, and it was surprising to see that it followed a similar pattern to the old traditionally Japanese way of naming years after the current Emperor.

“Who is Egil?” I asked after stopping by one of the pearl-white monoliths and reading the year, which stated ‘8th year of Egil’ as year of death, strangely, there was no specific date attached, though I noticed that with most of the graves, so it was perhaps intentional.

“Sir Egil Gyldenrose is the King of Lacksmey, and Arley, where his brother, Prince Torvalder, has been allowed to rule. The current era is named after the King.”

“What year are we in now?”

“12th year of Egil,” she answered.

“Why don’t they record the specific dates? I can’t believe I haven’t asked this until now, but, doesn’t this world have a calendar system??”

“They do track three seasons: Seed, Fall, and Harvest. However, each year the seasons seem to change in number of days. We’re currently on the fifty-seventh day of Harvest. Last year, Harvest was no longer than fifty-three days, but this year it’s sixty days. I have no idea why.”

“That’s very confusing…”

“As for the graves,” she started, then her eyes fell slightly, “it seems to be tradition, although when we buried Hesher, I made sure to mark the specific date of death, even though the Archpriest overseeing the funeral rites said it was bad luck.”

I frowned. I couldn’t understand why the people of this world would have such a superstition.

After wandering about for some minutes, we headed towards the main building, but were stopped by a groundskeeper, who kept the stone path through the graveyard clear of the pebbles that surrounded each of the monoliths.

“You can’t enter, there’s a sermon underway,” he told us.

“I just wanted to know if I can procure Sinner’s Ash from this church,” I replied.

“An Exorcist, are you?”

I nodded.

“You’ll wanna head for the crematorium over there,” he said and pointed towards a circular one-storey pearl-white building with a tall chimney from which bellowed a steady stream of smoke.

“Thank you,” I said.

The man grunted something, before returning to his task.

At the crematorium, a man in stainless white robes was overseeing four men who were loading bodies into large ovens on sliding trays, before pulling them back out and discarding the bones that were too big to crush into powder along with the desiccated remains. The fire that roared within the ovens seemed of an unnatural sort.

“What do you want?” asked the overseer in the white robes.

“I was told I could acquire Sinner’s Ash from here.”

He sneered slightly, then yelled to the workers, “Do we have any Sinner’s Ash on hand?”

“Four kilos, sir!” called one of the workers.

“I just need enough to fill a small pouch, no more than fifty grams I’m sure.”

The overseer nodded, then said, “That’ll be six gold then.”

“You can’t be serious!” Rana commented hotly.

The man turned to face her and said acidly, “Do you even understand how much effort goes into collecting this particular ash!?”

“You just said you had four kilos’ worth!”

“Rana, it’s okay—” I tried to interject to deescalate the situation.

“We only collect a few grams per cremation, so our stockpile is the result of thousands of cremations! It’s a valuable ingredient for Alchemists, Ritualists, and Exorcists, which is why it’s so expensive.”

I put a hand on Rana’s arm to stop her before she could argue back.

“We understand,” I told him. “I assume the cost is the same for Sacred Corpse Ash.”

“That’s even more expensive,” he told me, “But we have exhausted our supply, since someone came and bought it all to deal with the Demon Galleon, so I have nothing to sell you.”

“That’d be my Mentor,” I replied.

“You helped defeat the Demon?” he asked, genuinely surprised.

“That’s right!” Rana answered, before I could.

The overseer sighed, then nodded. “I see. In that case, I suppose we can refill your pouch as thanks.”

“Really?” I asked.

“Frode is a good friend of mine and our Church has lost many of its proud members to that infernal creature before you came here with your mentor.”

I bowed deeply as thanks after the man handed me my refilled pouch of Sinner’s Ash. We left the crematorium and walked back through the stone garden with the monoliths displaying urns, and a moment later the belltower began to ring, perhaps marking the end of the sermon or denoting some specific time of day, although it was past noon already.

With Lukas in front, we went through the gate that led outside of the white walls surrounding the graveyard and church, and then headed in the direction of the inn that Rana said the lady with the Mercenary Contract had noted as her temporary residence in Ochre.

While the blonde Rogue skipped down the street, I reconnected with my Watcher that I’d left to monitor the Witch Hunters. To my horror, I saw a perspective that was near identical to the street we were walking along, and, in the distance of my borrowed sight, I could see myself. I stopped in place and turned around, immediately locking eyes with two of the Witch Hunters who were standing only a few metres away.

“Let go of me!” I heard Lukas then yell. I spun around to see him in the grip of the third Witch Hunter.

A heavy hand settled on my shoulder, before a warm breath washed over my neck and ear. A stern voice said, “Temaru Ryūta, we have some questions we’d like you to answer truthfully.”