In the end, the antiheroes all ate and drank until they ran Lance broke, and at that point even Charlotte had to fork over some money to cover the remainder of the bill.
They took advantage of the opportunity. That was all.
Trevor had used a little bait and switch technique in order to convince those mercenaries to work together with him, without barely even lifting a finger.
He had a use for them, of course.
Trevor saw potential within this group. From how he saw them, he would be able to mold them into useful subordinates, each which could perform different roles, and eventually assist the dictatorship.
But it would take time, effort, and coordination to create such a team.
Furthermore, there was one issue in particular that needed to be addressed before he could allow these people to become his allies.
Their innocence, and the shields that covered their eyes from understanding the difference between humans and monsters.
How would they react if they knew that Trevor and his group were monsters? Would they simply accept it and be on their way? No. Things wouldn't be so easy. He had to first expose them to such conditions, and he had a plan to do so.
So he needed to get started on this as soon as possible. The clock was ticking after all.
It surprised him that they were actually impressed with the antiheroes' harsh treatment of the hellraisers... Trevor himself did not originally intend for things to be taken as far as they did, however that was how it ended up... and it ended up actually much better than otherwise.
Now came an even greater task.
Actually bringing these mercenaries to an acceptable level, so that they could be useful as subordinates.
The first thing that was necessary was to go on a joint mission with them, which Trevor had suggested before they took their leave up to their room, in order to view their current abilities.
"Let us meet down here at 8 o clock tomorrow for... a team building exercise. If you all are late, consider yourselves not worthy to work with us."
"Understood. We will be down here bright and early."
"Very well."
And now, the antiheroes sat in their cramped room in their usual configuration, with the two girls on the bed and the two men on mattresses.
"We should contact the Determined to see what's going on with the fishmen.", Garett suggested.
"I agree. We need to know what is going on before we make any more plans.", Samantha added.
Trevor nodded, and gave Claire a call.
"Hello? Determined? Can you hear me ok?"
[Yeah, I can hear you. Is there some sort of new development, or do you want to hear my report? I'm relaxing right now, so I'd like to get back to it as soon as possible.]
Claire spoke with a hardened tone as if she was being bothered by the call.
"We've made some progress on our end, so I would like to share it with you... nothing major, however. I will hear your report after. Is that alright?"
[Sure. Just keep it brief.]
Trevor somewhat flinched at the harsh tone Claire took. This was not the usual Determined that he knew. Has something happened? She seemed... irritated.
"Well, we were able to make it to the village of Githard, where the campaign will begin. We have made contact with the local mercenary guild, and are currently in the process of obtaining a new set of pawns to work with. We also had to take care of some minor inconveniences, but that isn't something of note. Anyways, what about your end? What information have you obtained about the fishmen village?"
[Oh you're not gonna believe this. I came to the fishmen village today... and they had the gall to run from me when I was approaching them. First, they started screaming and running, something about thinking I was some sort of vampire queen or something. It was probably because of those carriages that you all designed... but I took a more... forceful approach when I entered the village, and I didn't have many more problems from there. The fishmen village is split into two sectors- the aboveground sector and the underwater cave system. You have to swim through an underwater tunnel in order to enter the main part of the city, and pass through some gates in order to progress... so, I came to the palace here and had a conversation with the current chief... I even warned him about the upcoming war situation out of kindness, and he told me that they have some sort of competition tomorrow to determine the new chief. Can you believe it? After I wasted all my breath explaining the situation, I now have to go through all that again if he doesn't win this tournament tomorrow. Ugh...]
"That must have been tough.", Ashley sighed. She seemed legitimately sympathetic for Claire for the first time ever.
"What's with the new tone? Have you finally given up on your hero act?", Samantha asked while laughing.
[I'm sick of trying to act like some sort of hero to people who don't even want my help. I decided instead to take a different approach, and it worked a whole lot better than my previous methods. Anyways... sorry to take out my stress on you all... I just... I guess today was a lot to take in... I feel like I've been holding in all this anger and hiding it away ever since I came to this world... or something...]
"There's no need to hold back. All I ask is that you remain diligent, and don't do anything that will compromise our position as rulers. Do you understand?"
Trevor said this in a firm voice. This was the first time he had taken such a serious tone with anyone since he had came to this world.
It went to show just how suspicious he was of the Determined, and how concerned he was about her sudden change. After all, he did have expectations for her, and it would be very troublesome if she were to go off the rails or betray them.
[Yeah... I'm sorry, I guess I just needed someone to talk to. At least I have you all here to rant.]
"Indeed. If you ever need a shoulder to lean on, we're here for you. I understand that the tasks we have given you are not trivial, and I truly am grateful that you are doing them. Without you, we would have difficulty making contact with other tribes.", Trevor praised. He legitimately meant it. Despite the fact that he was suspicious of Claire, he didn't want to belittle what she had done for the dictatorship.
[Thank you. That was what I needed to hear. Anyways... tomorrow I'm going to be watching this tournament and from there I will gain information on the new leader. The current one was reasonable and seemed to care for his people, however we'll see about that if things change...]
"Got it. Anything else?", Garett asked.
[No, that's it for today.]
"Ok. Cya then."
With that, the call ended, and Trevor began to run thousands more simulations in his mind about his new and updated strategy. As a result of his database skill, his mind now worked like a computer, and he was able to do much more than simply strategize. He was able to simulate... edit parameters to reach a more desirable outcome... re-simulate...etc. There were barely any scenarios which he didn't see coming. It was almost like playing chess, where he could see every possible move that the opponent could possibly make, and he saw every possible set of moves which could be made due to that move. Essentially, he was hundreds, or perhaps even thousands of steps ahead of his opponents, and the more information he had, the more accurate these simulations became.
"Let's get to sleep then. I will take first watch while I consider our next 10,000 moves."
"Haha... don't work too hard Mr. supercomputer.", Ashley joked.
"Not everyone can decide on intuition alone, Mrs. Always right."
----
Morning came quickly, and Trevor was up before anyone else as he was the last one on watch.
Despite being far more powerful than anyone they had met thus far, by a factor so great that it wouldn't even be right to make a comparison, Trevor had continuously harped on the fact that they could never sleep calmly without having at least one person awake. Carelessness in one thing will lead to carelessness in others, and not taking advantage of their situation was the best way to avoid such carelessness.
Even so, Trevor really had come a long way to be able to trust the watch to the other three.
There had been too many times that he had overestimated his skills in this world... he hadn't been pessimistic enough, and it seemed to Trevor that he would never learn his lesson. He wanted to take more and more precautions against a calamity with each passing day, however the situation's complexity only seemed to increase more and more.
As dictators of a village filled with monsters, his situation was one ripe for the making of enemies.
His death would certainly benefit many people, and Trevor vowed to never forget this.
After waking up the rest of his comrades, they all got ready for the day. Even in their sleep, Samantha's illusion spell had remained in effect, which was quite fortunate.
'It would have been quite the pain to hide ourselves while she slept... what if someone were to spy on us as we sleep? We can never tell if our enemies are right near us... even if I have an outstanding perceptive skill, I am certain that there might be some in this world who can elude it.... I have to prepare for the worst case scenario at all times... now... I suppose it's time to meet up with those mercenaries.'
Trevor checked the clock on his status screen. He found himself longing for a watch.
[7:00 AM]
"If you aren't ten minutes early then you're late. An obvious rule of business. We will go and have breakfast first, however."
Ashley smiled and a slight bit of drool seemed to gather at the end of her mouth when Trevor mentioned food.
"You'll attract attention if you go out there drooling like that. Please try to at least be a bit presentable for the sake of our current mission."
"Slurp... ah... yeah yeah... presentation this, presentation that..."
"Hah..."
Trevor felt himself face-palming more often than usual recently.
"Let's head out. We have a new set of pieces on the board, and I would like to maximize their usage if possible."
----
When the four arrived in the parlor, they saw a surprising sight.
The four mercenaries they had met the previous day were already sitting at a table together, eating. They must have gotten up extremely early to be here even before Trevor came down. Near each of their seats, aside from Lance they seemed to have weapons by their sides. Pierre seemed to have an intricate whip which looked more like a thin wire coiled into a loop near his belt, and Melody had a long rod made of a plaster-like material that had a red sphere at each end. It must have been some sort of wand. And finally, Charlotte had a sickle by her side.
Some eggs and ham, bacon and even pancakes with syrup were set on the table, and Lance seemed to be happily chatting it up with his comrades while reaching all the way across the table for the syrup.
Melody was sitting properly while slowly chewing away at her small plate of hash browns. She seemed like the serious member of the bunch, and Trevor felt that in one way or another he was similar to her.
'This one.... she has always done everything on her own, and never had anyone she can rely on....'
He could tell that she was the one who was always cleaning up after her comrades messes, and the one they went to when they were unsure what to do.
'Well... not that I really have to clean up after these three... haha... I remember back when that woman was so useless and just look at her now... she coordinates with my plans so well that I barely even have to explain anything to her anymore... then again, the reason I haven't had to do much cleanup after these three is simply because we were lucky enough to have gained these strange powers in the first place... if we were weaker in this world, perhaps we would have run into a lot more troubles than we have so far...'
Trevor remembered the days when they feared the nightmare mode which they were so suddenly sprung upon.
It was a tremendously dangerous situation, and a miracle that they had survived to become this strong.
How far they had come from then.
Pierre was gobbling down a piece of bread before he wiped his face with a handkerchief and smiled at the antiheroes.
"Good morning, Theo! Ally! Sarah! Gary! Did you all sleep well?"
He seemed much less stoic than the first time they met, when he seemed to be staring with suspicions.
The antiheroes were greeted with smiles and laughter from the entire group.
"I hope we will be able to work well with you all today. I took the liberty of glancing at the job board, and there was actually one that seemed interesting given what you said yesterday, Theo.", Lance said with a bright face, while taking out a parchment scroll and beckoning the four to come over to take a look.
"Aren't your pocket's feeling a little light after yesterday? My comrades don't exactly know how to hold back...", Samantha asked Lance in a concerned tone.
Of course she was only acting in order to leave a good impression on these pawns, however she acted as if she was legitimately concerned out of kindness.
"Oh, don't worry about that! I offered to pay, and I don't go back on my word! Well... aside from the fact that you all did eat more than I had on me... sorry about that Charlotte..."
"Haha... don't worry about it Lance, and you don't worry either Sarah. It's only right that we treated you if were going to be working together from now on. And as Lance said before, we will be making plenty of money as soon as this campaign starts!"
"You all are so kind. What were you going to say about the job, Lance?"
"Yes well, take a look at this. It's a job request... a pretty typical one for mercenaries these days. It seems that there is a troupe of bandit's hiding out in a cave just outside the city, and they have been making travelers their target's due to the large traffic volume recently... apparently they were a former band of soldiers, united under a Lieutenant, but after deserting and committing some sort of crime they turned to thievery. I was thinking on what Theo was saying yesterday, and I thought that if you all are truly here to enforce your own sense of justice, then wouldn't these bandits be a good place to start?"
Trevor smiled, impressed.
"Well done, Lance. It seems that you all have some promise. Rising early, seeking out opportunities even when nobody is looking... you all have potential as partners for our group."
"Ah... it was nothing... heh heh...", Lance said with a hand behind his head while blushing lightly.
Garett then took the stage.
"I have a few suggestions as well if that is the case, Theo, can you hear me out as well, and decide if my plan is worth trying?"
"Please go ahead."
"I think that the most important thing when coordinating with another team is effective communication and understanding of each others strengths and weaknesses. As such, I think we should take this opportunity to witness these four in their natural state before doing any joint fighting with them. Of course, if things look like they are going to go wrong, we should jump in."
"That sounds fine to me. Ally, what do you think?"
"I feel that we should do that."
"Then, are you all fine with that?"
The four all nodded, with no complaints.
"Please rest easy, knowing that my bow will be at your back in case anything goes wrong.", Trevor noted while patting the bow at his side.
"Thank you! You all are so considerate!", Charlotte exclaimed.
The group continued eating, and the antiheroes ordered breakfast as well. Ashley pigged out on the food just as she had before, however this time she held back a little knowing that it was coming out of the antiheroes pockets.
"Ahem... I suppose I will explain our basic party composition, so you all have a reference for what we can do. I am the archer of the group, and together with Ally, who uses fire magic... among other things, we are able to deal the main damage for our party. Sarah here is our healer, and she also can use some basic buffing magic as well as barrier magic. Finally, Gary here is our-"
"He's the tank, right?", Lance asked.
"Well uh... not exactly. We don't really have a tank. Gary here is our craftsman. He is good with his hands, and can make just about anything."
"You all don't have a tank? What if you get injured?", Pierre asked.
"Well, let's just say that we've come a long way... but it certainly hasn't been easy.", Garett responded, while pointing to the elven tunics they were 'wearing'. In reality, he was pointing to the steel thread armor, however he acted as if the elven clothes created through the illusion were providing him with protection.
"Ah... I see... are those elven clothes imbued with some sort of magic, then?", Charlotte asked.
"Something like that."
"Now then... if you all are almost finished eating... that means you Ash-ahem... Ally... it is about time we head out to take care of these bandits... as a token of good faith, and as thanks for the meal, I will allow your team to take the reward for yourselves. Does the request say anything about how many we will be taking on?"
"It only says that it is a large group... which means it could be more than 15 men. Are you all confident in going in with only the eight of us? And are you sure about letting us take the reward?"
Trevor thought for a moment. Should be be cautious here?
However, if the opponents were on the level of regular humans... there would be no issues at all.
In a worse case scenario, he could leave these pawns behind as bait and escape himself.
"There should be no issues. Let us show these bandit's that they picked the wrong lifestyle."