“Welcome to the mercenaries guild!” Karmine said proudly. “Which is also part of the coliseum! Come on, we don’t actually want to go through the main entrance, that would just lead us to the stands and ticket booths. We want to go to a large building attached to the coliseum, that’s where the merc guild is.”

Luna looked a little sad at that, wanting to see the fights within the coliseum herself.

“Why is the mercenaries guild attached to the coliseum?” Van asked.

“It’s because the coliseum has a nice large open field that people can train in. it’s not like there are showings everyday. People need a rest, and when they do, the floor of the coliseum is unused, which then gets rented out to people who want to train there. It's a win-win for the owners of the place and the guild, since many mercs also sometimes try their hands at rising through the ranks and becoming famous gladiators. Afterall, where there is money to be made, there are mercs!” Karmine said happily.

“Come on! I’ll show you around!” She then guided them around until they saw a large rectangular building attached to the coliseum just like she said. It was massive in it’s own right, though probably a fourth the size of the coliseum it was combined with. That of course still didn’t mean that it couldn't hold a lot of people. In fact, there were already hundreds of dangerously armored people walking in and out of the place in a tide of multiple races of all colors and shapes.

The guards that followed them from the halls of blood and justice tightened their formation around Van and Luna. They weren’t wearing the duchies' livery, on behalf of Van who didn’t want them to stick out, but that meant they had to stay closer to him and Luna than before to make sure no one had any ideas.

As they entered the building, Karmine leading the way, many eyes slowly began to follow them. It was clear by Van and Luna’s little honor guard that they were some sort of important noble or another. And it didn’t seem like they took too kindly to that, almost as if to them nobles were nothing but trouble… Or perhaps they thought of them as easy money, maybe another stupid noble that though they could make it as a merc like them or was willing to spend stupid amounts of money...

They slowly went deeper into the building, and Van noticed that it became a half pub half lobby sort of place where posters of jobs were put up on one side of the wall and on the other was a place to sit down and buy drinks and food.

“Yo! Stacy! How you been!” Karmine said happily, smacking the receptionist counter at the end of the building.

The woman, Stacy, looked up to see who was addressing her, her eyes going wide when she saw who it was.

“Karmine!? What are you doing here!? Word on the street said you went rogue and then got caught and sent to that bloody justice place! How are you here!?” Stacy exclaimed.

Karmine chuckled. “My luck hasn’t run out just yet. As part of my parole… I’m to take care of a bunch of brats. So I'm wondering if Ashina and Adela are still here. I need to help fill out my roster for this next job, max occupancy one hundred, and I need at least fifty more.”

“Hmm…” Stacy thought about it, she quickly began opening up mana panels and began looking through a list of available mercs. “Ah… yes, she’s still here, I’ll call her right now.” Then tapping a few buttons.

Five minutes later a huge merc came from one of the halls. Van and Luna’s eyes widened. They had thought Karmine was big and tall, but this merc was half a head even taller than her!

She seemed to be some sort of beastwomen with some demonkin blood in her. Just like Karmine, she had to strap her breasts down with large leather bands or else they would pop out. She wore a mix of heavy leather and metal scales for armor in a design similar to eastern oriental ones he remembered from past lives. She walked on her digitigrade toes, wearing leather sandals, and had a wolf-like face, muzzle and everything with golden eyes. Her fur was a light gray and covered in black and white tribal tattoos, all the way to the tips of her pointy ears to her tail, a black and white moon on her forehead. Her body was lean and taut, yet covered in nice soft looking fur, giving her a hard yet gentle appearance, almost as if she would be great to hug, even with all that muscle underneath. She carried with her a metal shield almost as big as her, with a large iron spike cudgel on one side of her hips and a very large crossbow on her back. She also had two small horns that curved backward, indicating her demonkin heritage.

She was followed by another beast woman who seemed to be a younger sister of sorts to the first one. She was smaller, but a little taller than Luna, with the same tattoos of her sister. She also walked on her toes and had two small horns that curved backwards. She carried a staff and Van sensed a large well of mana, indicating that she was a mage of some sort. She also looked around a bit nervously, yet studiously, her intelligent eyes constantly scanning the room.

“Ashina! Adela! So good to see you two!” Karmine said happily, first looking at the large beast woman then the small one in order.

“Well, well, well… if it isn’t Karmine…” The tall one known as Ashina said, looking down on her disapprovingly. Though it quickly proved itself to be an act because she couldn’t help but return the smile eventually. “How are you doing you crazy bitch! Last I heard you were getting life!”

Karmine smiled. “Almost did!” but then her smile cracked and slowly faded away, she then sighed. “You were right… I should have just run away… taken my chances.”

Ashina shook her head. “Na… you were right… Had no idea who your mother was until afterward… trying to run away from a bitch that crazy would have been sucided without someone backing you up. I’m just glad you are okay… Though…” Her eyes became hard. “That still doesn’t mean I forgive you for going bandit… I told you I hated it when Mercs go bad and go bandit… gives us all a bad name…”

And surprising both Van and Luna, Karmine looked… chastened. She rubbed the back of her neck, not looking Ashina in the eyes and gave a weak. “Sorry…” In reply.

“I hope that’s not the best you can do…” Ashina crossed her arms.

“No, I actually am doing something to fix the damages I made! And it starts with those two…” Karmine pointed at Van and Luna.

“Hmm…” Ashina gave the two of them a long look, then as if coming to some conclusion, gave a quick look around then turned her head back towards Karmine. “Let's get a private booth. You can explain yourself then…” She then turned to the receptionist. “Stacey?”

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Stacy nodded, “On it.” and with a few taps on her panel board she reserved a private booth.

After that Ashina jerked her head, indicating everyone to follow. She frowned when the guards did the same, but kept quiet until they reached the booth. Once Karmine, Van, Luna, and Adela sat down, Ashina took her seat and pulled a curtain and brought out an item that activated a sound barrier.

“Alright. Spill.” looking in Karmine’s direction.

Karmine began explaining everything that happened after she got the letter from her mother. How she used the starting money that Karmila gave her to help out some homeless, and only took the ones that wanted to go with her. After that she trained up for a year and bought some powerful taming equipment to help make surviving in Gleam forest easier. After that they just raided or extorted any caravans that passed through their way. Though there was one particular follower of hers that was a bit… bloodthirsty… which caused some problems, but they were able to roll with it.

She then spoke about how they were ordered to kidnap Van and Luna, how she had second thoughts, about the contract and everything. As well as what happened afterward and how she ended up in a prison cell within the halls of blood and justice.

“Bwahahaha!” Ashina laughed. “I can’t believe that worked!” She then gave Van an approving gaze. “To use your own body to buy time for rescue to arrive, that’s impressive… and to be so good at sex that you convince Karmine to sign a contract with you? That is even more impressive! Maybe we should sign a contract as well…” Giving Van a saucy wink.

“Well… it didn’t work exactly like that… Nor in that order…” Karmine said, not wanting it to look like she was brought down because of a pretty boy who was good in bed.

Ashina laughed once more. “Alright, now this deserves a drink!” She then pressed something that Van presumed was like a buzzer of sorts and a minute later a waitress came knocking.

Ashina removed the curtain and turned to her guests. “You guys want anything? My treat!”

Van and Luna looked down at the menu provided to them and chose a few simple things and a drink. Van then noticed that Luna was ordering some alcohol.

“Luna, what are you doing? You know how you get under the influence of alcohol! Save that for some other time.” Van admonished.

“Oh come on Van! Look at this place!” pointing at the many mercs swinging their beers and having a good time. “This is the perfect atmosphere to have a beer!”

“Bwahahaha! The little girl is right!” Ashina chortled. “Can’t drink milk forever! Relax and have some fun! After this we can go to the stands and watch some people beat the shit out of each other!”

“Hell ya!” Luna said, all for it.

Van wasn't too happy about this change of pace and tried to bring the conversation back on track. Waiting for the waitress to take their orders and leave, once gone, he began to get to the point of why they were here. “Anyway… now that you know everything… You understand now why we are here right? We need to hire a few people to take with us to Bloodhaven.” He explained.

“Ya, I figured, unfortunately for you… you might be a little too late.” Ashina said.

“What do you mean?” Luna asked.

“You think you're the only noble’s looking for hired help? There are hundreds of the little buggers running around here looking for some idiots to rope into coming with them to the academy.” Ashina said with a frown. “The higher ranked mercs though, such as myself, make sure to keep a wide distance from them… no amount of money is worth going to the academy…”

Van was confused by this, “why’s that? Seems like an easy job to me. Just follow some idiot around, march in formation, and maybe kill a few monsters. From what else I heard, you guys mostly just lay around and get trained by professionals for free. That doesn’t sound so bad…”

Ashina snorted. ‘It’s that idiot part that makes it bad… You think every noble is like you? Making plans within plans, willing to risk it all to survive, going so far as to fight opponents beyond your ability?”

She then rolled her eyes. “And sure, it might sound nice to get paid while being trained to become a better fighter… but there is usually a time every few years where the academy sends its students out to fight monsters that can rip even a vampire knight into pieces… And then there are the stupid fucking orders! There's no end to them! Noble brats just expect their soldiers to fling themselves to death on their orders, which might work with goblins, but not with everyone else!”

A knock was heard and Ashina opened up the curtain to let the waitress serve the food and drinks they ordered. The women in question gave a side eyed look to the guards outside the booth before leaving.

“Ahem…” Ashina gave a polite cough. “The point I'm trying to get at is that not a lot of mercs want anything to do with going to the academy, or the nobles that are supposed to lead them. Unless of course they are desperate, stupid, greedy, incompetent, or hopeful that some male might take a shine to them and they can rise through the ranks of vampire society as some sort of favorite concubine… sometimes all of the above… you understand what I’m trying to get at?”

Van nodded, he wasn’t happy about it, but he somewhat understood the reasoning.

Luna tried taking a sip of her beer and spluttered at its taste. Not to be deterred or outdone though, she tried to force the liquor down her throat in one big swig.

Everyone had turned to look at Luna in mild surprise at her actions.

When done, she gave a small, “Hic!” her eyes already looking distant.

“Bwhahahaha! You go girl!” Ashina laughed.

Van sighed, hoping this won’t cause a problem later. “Just to make it clear…” Van asked, looking at Ashina. “There are no more mercs left willing to be bought by students?”

Ashina gave it some thought. “No… I don’t think so… and even if there was… there's already another student on the waiting list looking for Mercs to hire… I would suggest your best bet is to either look in the slums for some desperate people, or if you have the money, the auction house or slave trader. Or if you have a lot of money, some of the more expensive Mercs, though they will usually have it somewhere in their contract that they don’t have to obey every little order given to them.”

“I see…” Van thought about that… “What about you? How much are you worth?”

Ashina blinked, and Adela’s eyes went wide, even Karmine looked taken aback.

In the end, Ashina tilted her head back and laughed uproariously, so loud Van thought it would go over what the sound barrier could contain.

“I-i’m sorry, I’m sorry, it’s just that…” she shook her head. “No… actually… that was rude of me… you have my apologies…” She bowed her head a little.

“Uh, no… it’s fine…” Van said, though he was just a tad offended at being laughed at. “I guess for some reason that was a stupid question…?”

“Hmm…” Ashina eyed him up and down. “You know what… I think I will accept your offer…” again, making Adela’s eyes widen and shocking Karmine. “On three conditions…” raising three fingers.

“Oh? What are those then?” Van asked, looking curious.

“One.” Ashina began. “You will pay me and my group full price, no negotiations. It will only be until you finish your schooling, anything else after that we can talk about afterward. We also hold the right to leave should you prove yourself an unworthy leader, the bare minimum being you don’t simply lead us into stupid situations that can get us all killed. Understand?”

Van nodded

“Two. Just like you did with Karmine, you have to prove to me you can fight. If you're too weak, or if I sense your head for tactics and strategy is shit, or you simply don’t have the willpower to keep fighting even in a losing situation…” Now giving Van a hard look. “Because you will lose to me… it only matters how…”

Van nodded, wondering if Ashina was even more powerful than Karmine with the amount of confidence she was exuding…

“Three… again… just like with Karmine… you will bed me, and my sister…”

Adela looked up at that in surprise.

“If you're willing to do that… lay with a bunch of filthy lower races and commoners and mix breeds… Then I'll accept your offer… but you can’t show disgust, not one bit of it…” that last condition oddly enough sounded more like it was for her little sister then herself. “Do we have a deal?” extending her hand out.

Van looked at the offered hand… Karmine was powerful… and she respected this woman immensely if the way she acted was anything to go by… and if he can’t make up the numbers… then perhaps he can make up the power…

He leaned forward and shook Ashina’s hand. “You have a deal.” He looked her in the eyes while he said that, showing his determination to win.

Ashina smiled.

“FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT!” Luna cheered, drinking more of her beer, already looking tipsy.

“Follow me to the coliseum. We begin right away.” Ashina got up, and so did Van. He followed her down the hallways and into the stadium…