"The nearest city is Bhenratre huhh. Where is the nearest city here that has a sea port?" she asked Salazar, the old man who is the former slave of Gelro Teggran the merchant.
"Hmm... Three cities comes to mind. Northwest of here is the City of Almiera of the Hanzelburo Kingdom. It is one of the oldest and most prominent cities of the kingdom. It's ruling lord is wise so the economy is stable. It is currently enjoying its peace time. Two of its largest trade partners are the Principality of Nerulyo and the Free City of Jakalsas. The Port City of Tritos and the Shield City of Yruma also has an excellent port. Both cities belong to the Iranliya Empire. The port city is considered the gateway of the empire to the sea and it is directly administered by the emperor so peace and order is well mentained and it has a large trade partners. But if we want to get there fast then the City of Yruma is the way to go. Its ports pale in comparison to the other two cities but being a military nation, it is the safest of the two. It has a long stalemate war against the nation bordering its eastern side." Salazar said with a voice that contains knowledge and wisdom appropriate for his age.
"Thank you Salazar." said Chloe.
Earlier when they were finding a suitable spot to set up her 'tent' she told them that she didn't know anything about this world and to tell her all that they know, from general knowledge to how society works.
Though the twins had some of their knowledge to share such as the Iives of the commoners in the village and in the city and how the village and the city traded but it pales in comparison to the knowledge provided by Salazar. She got the gist of how things work in this world in the short amount of time that they've been walking and talking.
She was currently hearing the opinions of the three in the 'tent' that she bought from the Marketplace. Said tent was a metal dome that looked like an igloo. It is a bit smaller than an igloo and one has to crawl in order to get in. But on the inside, it is approximately a 50 square meter in width and 10 meters in length. This is how she slept inside the forest where monsters attack more frequently during the night. It has a barrier that can withstand a direct attack of a Berexhalii and alerts its tenants when the barrier is about to break.
Since she had been living in there for the past week, she had naturally furnished it with a sofa, a bed, a dining table and even a comfort room. The comfort room is only for cosmetics back in the game, a player can't even open it. But in this world, the bathroom is fully functional and it even includes a bathtub. The toilet is one of those super high tech toilets in Japan, this is probably because the creator of this game is a Japanese company. Come to think of it, they wouldn't know how to operate those, right? I'll just instruct them when the time comes, she thought.
"Being near here, Yruma is disqualified." she said while sipping on a cup of oolong tea. The said tea were prepared by Deena, one of the two blond sister. Incidentally, the two girls were adamant on being given a role other than being an informant to her so she taught them how to make tea which the girls quickly learned how to do or rather, they forced themselves to learn quickly. Is it me or are they afraid of me?
Anyway, the reason for the disqualification of Yruma is because of its near proximity to the City of Bhenratre. She killed a prominent member of the Merchant's Union so there was a high chance that a search party will be formed looking for Gelro. Once they fail in that, they will look for his wares since the one who bought them seems to be an influencial lord of a certain region.
Even though she acts so full of herself when it comes to her enemies, this is usually the result of her evaluation on the strengths of her enemy. She exorcises a great caution when fighting an enemy that she knows nothing about. Chloe knows that almost all of her skills are support skills and she knows that a player that can overcome her healing skills can kill her. She knows what her strengths and weaknesses are. That said, she doesn't know a thing about this world and that she knows that there might be someone like her who stepped in a golden portal and is brought here too. She is definitely not the strongest and she will never assume that she is, for she believes that there are people out there that are more powerful than her.
"That leaves us with Tritos and Almiera, what do you think?" she said as she clears her mind from her own thoughts.
"If the mistress plans to start a guild, Almiera is a great place to start. The Foothills of Miarinnha and the Forest of Slumber is a great place for rookie hunters. But as a result, the quality of hunters there are poor. This is because when they have trained well enough, they move on to other places. Tritos on the other hand is full of experienced hunters and mercenaries. The ruins of the Forsaken Temple provides a lot of monster to train and gather high quality materials, this is not even mentioning the Cave of Ternhal and the forest of Lakoseer. Problem is, mistress, it is full of strong guilds so it is hard to recruit and smaller guilds usually gets harassed and eventually be crushed by the giant guilds." said Iyara, the eldest of the blond sisters. If Deeana is the hands-on type, then she is the studious type. She told me that she can read write and do simple calculations. Salazar and her compliments each other's information thereby preventing a biased source of information.
According to Salazar and Iyara, The Union of the Sellswords isn't like the adventurers guild that she have read on the internet and is becoming more of a common trope. First is that the Union of the Sellswords is the one that oversees all of the gulds that is established by different individuals. There is at least one building of the Union at every city, clients can post request or job orders there where it would then be sent out to the guilds that it encompasses. Of course clients can post or make a request directly at a guild but that would cost more but it would mean that only that guild can accept the said request.
The guild rankings from the least to the greatest are: Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, Orichalcum, Vental, Adamantine and Dracoris. The guild's rank are what determines the tier of request that can be made available to a guild. But a guild can take requests that are 1 step above their rankings. For example, a Bronze rank guild can take a Silver rank request. Doing a number of these types of requests can get the guild promoted.
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
"I do not care about recruiting strangers. What I care about is the geography, the culture and the ways of the people, security and the ease of doing and making business. Based on this, Salazar, which of these two hold the advantage over the other?"
"A straight answer would be Tritos young lady."
"But mistress," Deena called out to the side of Chloe "How would the mistress' guild get promoted if there is no members to take requests and job orders? "
"I don't care about that too." Chloe said. The reason she will create her own guild is to not get forced to join a guild. According to Salazar, guild leaders sometimes do underhanded means to recruit capable individuals.
"If-if that is what the mistress' will..." replied Deena, while looking at Salazar in hopes to fins a supplementary answer on why her master does not want to recruit people. But Salazar just shrugged his shoulders.
"The faster we act, the better our chances to getaway for killing the merchant, " she said. "You guys do know the way to get there right?"
Of her three slaves, only Salazar nodded.
"Good, then it's best to depart now and-"
"Young lady, the sun is about to set. If we depart now we risk being attacked not just by monsters but also by bandits and raiders. I hope you consider." said Salazar.
During their interaction in this short span of time, he noticed that even though his new master listens and thinks thoroughly before executing an action, the young lady still has a tendency to be spontaneous. He painfully knew from experience the consequences of unplanned actions.
"No. We'll leave now. The faster we head off, the better." she said nonchalantly as she got up from her seat and headed outside.
"Bu-but, you see young lady, monsters can see well in the darkness. I do not know about the young lady but we three could not even if our path is guided by the moonlight." he said as he tries to block the way of Chloe who still insist on going.
As the 'tent' isn't that big, she got out and is immediately followed by a worried Salazar and the two girls. She deactivated the 'tent' which then turned to a small metal ball the size of a tennis ball and stored it back to her inventory.
She looked up at the sky and by her own estimate, it was about 5:00 pm and what Salazar told her is logical and should be followed.
"Salazar, is there a flock of dangerous monsters that is flying around the skies here?" she asked him while looking up in the sky. She often always ask Salazar first because out of the three, he was the one who has more knowledge.
"We are three kingdoms apart from the Haleriya Great Mountains so I doubt that the skies would have dangerous flying monsters such as Wyverns and the Dark Flocks." Salazar stated with a doubtful face almost as if asking her why would she ask these.
So dragons such as Wyverns exists here huh... And what are those Dark Flocks? Chloe thought as she prepares for a spell.
"[Come, Haizum]!" she said in a loud voice.
Seconds later, the three slaves were bewildered for they are hearing a distant but a very powerful neigh of a horse that almost sounds like a thunder of a large incoming storm. As their master Chloe was looking up at the sky with a slight grin on her face, they instinctively look at the direction she was facing. Their mouths flew open as they saw a horse, a pure white flying horse heading towards them.
Chloe took a glance at her three slaves and all three of them had their legs shaking with a frightened expression. Well, who could blame them, a horse suddenly showing up would probably scare me too.
The horse landed in front of Chloe and neighed softly as the horse presented its head to Chloe to be patted. Head pats is life, head pats is love.
Haizum is a horse from Islamic tradition. It is said to be God's gift to the archangel Gabriel for pleasing Him. He is a white flying horse similar to Pegasus from Greek mythology but with an almost ethereal body and wings that burns with a golden glow.
He then takes a look at her inventory to find one of her means of transportation in the game. I hope that the system's automatic equip is still working, Chloe mumbled.
A grand carriage with a black exterior and golden ornaments suddenly appeared and saddled the horse. Great, it still works.
She have the carriage because she doesn't have the mount skill required to ride her horse. There's a limited number of skill slots so she prioritized support skills and some of the useful attack skills appropriate for her race and class.
She looked at the trembling slaves that took a few steps back and said with a proud grin "We'll be taking to the skies Salazar."
"T-to the skies...?" said the dumbfounded old man. Unable to grasp what was happening.
"Haaa... Listen, I don't like repeating what I said, okay? This carriage can fly, do not question me any further. Now put this on as your outfit is an eyesore and will dirty the inside of the carriage." Chloe said as she gives the three of them their intended outfits. "Just knock when you finish changing." she said as she enters the carriage leaving the three alone.
She wanted to enter this place and decorate it as soon as possible. As this was a high tier carriage in the game, it's space is a bit expanded but not obviously so. It can easily hold up to ten people without feeling claustrophobic. She placed a small chandelier at the middle as the ceiling is high enough and some candle lights to illuminate the inside of the carriage. Back in the game, the carriage is always illuminated but this was not so in this strange new place. She placed a table in the center for her drinks and snacks. As she had not neglected her carriage back in the game, it had been well maintained and fully furnished with soft seats and velvet carpets so she didn't have to do all that much in terms of decorating.
She hears a knock at the door signifying that the three have finished changing their clothes. Chloe was a bit thankful for the merchant for being decent enough to make them take baths and take care of their outside appearance. In fact, if not for their rag clothes, they look like they were well of.
"Hmm hmm, it suits you well."
"Thank you mistress." she said as she bowed and lifted the hems of her skirt gracefully.
She ushered them inside and felt a laughter escaping from her mouth. Does the slaves have to gawk at everything I do? She mumbled but Chloe found it quite amusing.
The butler clothes really suits Salazar well while the twin maids clothes are a perfect match for the sisters. The three nervously take their seat, the two sitting on the opposite side of the table and prepared the tea of their mistress while Salazar sat besides Chloe, awaiting further orders.
"Young lady, May I ask how we will move forward? I-I have an experience in coaching but...." said Salazar as his voice trailed off.
"I understand that Haizum scares you three. Worry not for I will be the one that steers him. To Tritos!" she exclaimed as she flicks her hand and the horse responded with a neigh as it moves forward, picking up speed, leaps off and flies.
The two sisters held on and screamed for dear life while the old man kept a poker face but is sweating rivers and is gripping tightly the arm of Chloe. But Chloe just ignored them for they'll get use to it and will eventually settle down. She was instead looking at the moon above because it has once again filled her heart with nostalgia. For the moon is the only thing that reminds her of her home, of the place she once belongs to.