A week had passed. The burn trauma victim had been taken care of, for the most part, now, it moved to the maintenance phase. With the help of Ilya, I grafted skins to their wounds and they would heal in a month or two, depending on how healthy the wound could be. Right now, I could take a deep breath outside of the guild office.
"Doc, coffee?" Sawyer asked as he offered me one.
Sawyer was also sitting down on the paved road in front of the guild office while holding a cup of coffee in a tin cup. The sun was just rising up. It was morning already. Some of the healed people had begun rebuilding their homes using woods from the nearby forest.
However, most of them were living temporarily inside a tent that we provided for humanitarian help. If they asked, we'd just answer that we prepared for it. Fuck hiding our power, if they needed help, we'd give it. Besides, the threat coming from this village was minimum so far. The only people capable of killing us were Sumia, Ilya, and John.
Even then, John was practically a regular hunter, not really a soldier. With that in mind, those two knights were perhaps the best candidate for the self-defense force of this village. There weren't that many people, and weapon emplacement would be cheap. Most of the villagers had positive opinions of us.
"Alfie, hey, how's last night?" Ilya asked as she got out of the guild office.
"Nothing out of the ordinary. Asthma, fever, you know, the usual," I said to Ilya.
"Oh, I see. Well, good thing that your medicine helps reduce the pain without using magical power," Ilya said.
"Your magical spells helped them heal so fast that I couldn't believe my eyes," I said.
"Hahaha, thanks for the compliment. How are you progressing, though?" Ilya asked.
"Well, I could use it a little bit, but not as proficient as you are," I said, referring to my progress in using a healing spell.
The healing spell was quite simple. Just chant the spell, put your hands on top of the wound, and watch the magic happen. For now, I assumed that the magical spell boosted the biochemical process of wound healing. I noticed that the granulation tissue on the wound formed better.
As we talked, another person arrived. This time, it was Sumia back in her regular guild receptionist uniform. The guild returned to its functional state after most of the unhealthy patients were either discharged or moved to the second floor of the guild office.
"Ilya, Sumia, both of us have an idea, would you two like to listen?" Sawyer asked.
"Sure, you both have a good idea, for the most part," Sumia said.
"Can we self-establish a militia in this village? Last week's attack really devastated the village, it might be a good idea to establish a militia," Sawyer said.
"Good idea, but who would be the member?" Sumia asked.
"Do you want to vouch for anyone?" I asked.
"Well, let's see. There's John, then Ilya, mmm, you two?" Sumia commented.
"You, how about yourself?" I asked.
"With my leg? Are you joking? I barely can walk, much less serve a militia," Sumia said.
"Well, you still can hold something, right? Besides, you know a thing or two about warfare, so, there's that. Besides, this is for defensive purposes. I don't think you need to move that much," I said to Sumia.
The strategy of defense for this village was to use weapon emplacement to prevent the enemy from attacking or getting closer to the village alongside using suppressive fire to mow down opponents close enough to the village. Basically, multiple heavy machine guns and mortar placements.
"Sure, but how can we help? You two literally defend this village all by yourself, is our help really necessary?" Sumia asked, since she observed the defense all by herself.
"Oh, we were overwhelmed, it's just we somehow manage to get through the night unharmed," I replied.
"Sure, we'll help, I can easily convince John," Sumia said.
"Awesome, do you have anyone else in mind?" I asked.
"Vince might want to help. He's in his tent with his family, the oldest son of Julia, his father died on the attack," Sumia said.
"Hmm, a vengeful son? This'll be something," I said.
"So, what are you going to do?" Ilya asked.
"Well, first of all, I need budget to equip you all. I don't know whether I have enough budget or not," I said.
Even with the 30,000 Arleum that Sawyer just got, there were only 20,000 left from purchasing the ammunitions, medicines, and weapons from the vending machine.
I wanted to equip the self-defense force with good enough equipment. Plus, training them would require ammunitions which cost quite a lot if purchased in large amount. I might need thousands of rounds to give them experience in shooting. Not only that, but mortal ammunitions and heavy machine gun ammunitions would also require money.
"So, bounty hunting again?" Sawyer looked at me.
"Indeed. We are going to do a bounty hunt. Sumia, is there an assassination worth 100,000 Arleum?" I asked her.
"I have none. Still, you can take two 50,000 Arleum quest. So, what do you say?" Sumia asked.
"Good enough for us," Sawyer said.
"Awesome. I'll get the bounty details for you," Sumia said.
Ilya let us to use her horse for this. It was good since Sumia also let us use her horse so we could go to a separate place. I'd say that we would be able to equip the self-defense force before the day ended.