" Good evening, are you both the adventurers in charge for the escort ? "
A middle aged man with glasses was holding on a pocket book and a pen, apparently looking around before their arrivals, as if taking into account everything that needed to be moved, and when he saw them, he immediately got closer and greeted them.
" That's us, are we late ? "
The one answering the question was obviously Arthur, accompanied by his trustful maid.
As for his question, it was because the guild master kept them in the guild building and explained how the escort should go according to the request, and a few other things.
They even ended up eating there while he was running his mouth, clearly wanting to avoid his share of work, which was amassed in a tall pile of paper on top of his desk, but because of that, he quickly told them to go out and join the merchants before they'll miss the departing time.
" No no, don't worry, you're just about right, we need to check a few carriages and we'll be on our way. "
Nodding to his answer, seeing that they didn't had much to say else, the merchant with his glasses went back to the carriages while he was left with Mariane.
Standing from afar, he could see how the merchants already had a few guards, but it wasn't much to protect the five carriages full of merchandise, which was why both adventurers and mercenaries were asked to escort along with them.
Apparently, from the words of the guild master, it was also a matter to bring good relationships, by engaging people from multiple places and paying a good sum, merchants were raising their own popularity and ensuring a few clients at the same time too.
' Well, if even people like merchants traveling through cities didn't have any money to even hire personal guards, they wouldn't take the risk to do it in the first place. '
While it would bring shame to an adventurer's name to fail an escort mission, it would also bring suspicion if one was to survive while the others died.
And such a suspicion would be raised because something like that already happened in the past, after all, there wouldn't be smoke without fire, and it happened that someone already killed merchants during an escort mission to keep all the goods.
Money was more enticing than one would think, and if one was to be too greedy, it would cause that kind of things.
Since that incident, most merchant hire more personal guards than they hire adventurers and mercenaries, as if to keep them in check from doing anything stupid, while filling in the missing spots.
' The world is such a complicated place after all. '
Sighing to himself, that small act didn't escaped Mariane's radar as she had to ask him about it.
" Master, are you tired ? "
Coming from someone who couldn't feel normal fatigue anymore, this question poked his proud self as he shook his head.
" I'm not, just thinking about a few things. "
Responding to her care and worries with a light smile, but maybe because it was forced, she didn't seemed too convinced by it, and he couldn't do anything about it.
Getting closer from the group that seemed to be almost done with their preparations, a loud voice soon reached their ears, coming from afar.
" Hey ! Wait for us ! "
Turning around to see who was talking, he finally saw it.
The grumpy man wearing leather armor with a rough beard, accompanied by a few other guys that seemed to be the same type as him.
They were all five humans, and while the words that came out of his mouth were not so pleasant, from the tone he used, he didn't seemed like that much of a bad guy, though they were a bit late.
Coming out of the crowd of merchants and hired guards, was the same guy with glasses that greeted them earlier, which was now walking toward the new group.
" You five must be the mercenaries that accepted the request, right ? We're on the point to depart, so you came right at the right time. "
" Damn, didn't expected us to be this lucky, are you our employer for this mission ? "
" Yes and no, I'm the one in charge of monitoring for the carriages and the travel this time, but I'm a small guy for the boss of the company that put the requests for the travel. "
Learning more about it from his answer, Arthur stayed on the side, with Mariane behind him, as he listened quietly to the interaction between them.
" Yeah, so you're the same as our employer, alright, where do we have to go ? "
" The five of you should walk along the carriages on the left side, the adventurers will take the right side. "
Now knowing that he'll have to walk along, Arthur thought that he should've engaged someone to ride them to Litheria on a carriage, but since he was already there, he'll have no choice but to walk for two days.
" Adventurers ? Are they here yet ? "
" Yes, they arrived earlier than you guys, both the man and his maid are adventurers, from what I heard, the boy is a silver class while the maid is an iron class. "
As he kept listening to them, it felt weird to have his rank already known and shared like that, but it wasn't that strange either, with the man being the one to handle the whole travel, obviously he would know about their ranks.
But if there was one problem, it was about his rank, while he could summon cards to fight for him, his personal fighting experience stopped at throwing hands around and defending himself, so he was far away from worthy of it.
" I'll be damned, even the maid is iron class ? "
" That's how it is. "
The reason he was surprised was probably because iron wasn't the lowest rank, and in fact, it was quite good among newbies, or in small cities outside that didn't had much activities.
With ranks being divided into stone, cooper, iron, silver, gold, diamond, platinium, region level and kingdom level, the higher you went, the less adventureres there was, and the guild master was kind enough to attribute them higher rank than most newbies.
" Well, nice to meet you guys. "
The rowdy man that put a stop to the conversation with the merchant to come and greet the both of them, handed them his hand.
" Nice to meet you as well. "
Taking it in a small handshake, Arthur didn't thought much about it and it was quickly resolved, but as he pulled his hand away, he could see the man in front of him smirk.
" You are.. pretty weak, aren't you ? "
Raising an eyebrow to such a statement, the guy in front of him started to explain himself.
" I mean, the adventurer's guild ranks are based on achievements, so maybe you did something great to raise yourself to silver, but just letting you know, without strenght, you wouldn't have raised yourself that well in the mercenary guild, heck, you might not even be able to join me in the iron ranks. "
And as if trying to deliberately ' pull him down from his high position ' , as it would be called, or simply trying to humiliate him, he just sighed at such an attempt.
" What, already demotivated ? "
Of course, while he wasn't that bothered by such a little man that would take his sigh as proof of weakness, he decided to show parts of what he could do, though it would mostly be a bluff.
" Cards. "
Calling the white book that could hold the cards but was empty, he didn't opened it, but grabbed it with one hand and lightly tapped the head of the now dumbfounded guy with it.
" That's why idiots will stay idiots, I mean, apparently you guys just use muscles and not your brains, so yeah, I might be lower than iron with just my body, but it's not all I have to me, unlike you. "
Taking back the book with just a thought, it disappeared in thin air the same way it appeared, as if it was but a fever dream, the mercenaries that assisted at the scene and even the merchant were surprised while the leader was struck with horror.
" I.. I'm sorry, I didn't knew... that you were a mage.... "
While he had his own thoughts, Arthur just shrugged the man's words.
' Seems like magic users are more revered than what I could think, I knew there was something special from the guild's master reaction, but never expected it to be that good. '
Sending a glance at Mariane, he turned around and started walking a bit further from them before he took his position against the right side of the first carriage.