Reincarnated into a Game as the Hero’s Friend - Chapter 23

I am more or less exhausted after finishing my long explanation with the Adventurer Guild, but I still moved my legs to the Mercenaries Guild next door. It’s just walking from one side of the building to the other, not moving between two buildings though. Is it just I or the stench of alcohol in the Mercenaries Guild is stronger than in Adventurer Guilds? Maybe it’s my nose playing tricks on me because of the image of drunkard mercenaries in my head.

“Welcome to the Mercenaries Guild. How may I be of service?”

“I’m here to commission several mercenaries to escort a merchant corps.”

“Please proceed inside.”

Unlike the Adventurer Guild, the receptionist here is a fairly old man. I suppose there’s no need to offer the hospitality of a beautiful woman to the client who came here to commission the rough mercenaries.

This old man is probably a former mercenary who retired due to old age or injury. To support the retired mercenary is one of the reasons why a guild exists, after all. Though the support the guild offered isn’t on the same level as the retirement support in modern times.

It’s hard to define the exact difference between a mercenary and an adventurer. A very rough answer is adventurers are people who venture into dungeons, while mercenaries are people who engage in battle in an open field.

The most significant difference between the two is their versatility. Adventurers are a jack-of-all-trades. They can venture into dungeons or accept investigation requests like mine. On the other hand, most adventurers moved in small groups.

That’s why an adventurer needs knowledge and experience to adapt to various situations. It’s not even a stretch to say adventurers who lack both are the one that dies first.

While mercenaries are commissioned for a situation in which combat will be expected, mercenaries rarely accept a commission for things like investigation, gathering magical herbs, historical ruins exploration, or labyrinth exploration.

Also, some adventurers dislike combat and won’t accept commission related to it, like exterminating bandits, but mercenaries generally will accept. Simply put, mercenaries are combat specialists.

Then, long-term jobs like becoming a city guard or maintaining public order in certain places are generally mercenary jobs, while adventurers tend to perform short-term jobs. The variety of jobs accepted by adventurers is also more compared to mercenaries.

Let’s take my commission as an example. For a short-term escort job that goes from town A to town B, that’s an adventurer’s job, while for a long-term escort job that goes from town A to town B, C, D, then back to town A, that’s a mercenary’s job.

It’s not exactly a rule, though. It’s more of what kind of job most merchants and adventurers usually accept. If an adventurer already knows and is close to a client, that adventurer can accept a long-term escort mission.

Mercenaries are also often commissioned as one large mercenary group. Among these mercenary groups, there’s a proper division role like an accountant, etc and in many cases, the group operated as a single organization.

Because many mercenaries move as one big organization, it takes less time for an employer to explain the division of roles for jobs like escort missions and protection missions. This is different compared to adventurers as many adventurers are bad at operating as a large group.

Nevertheless, when it comes to mercenary groups, it’s important to carefully select them since depending on their leaders, their ability and work ethics can be vastly different from one another. Some mercenary groups have good work ethics, while some groups are no different than bandits.

Well, mercenaries that are no different than bandits are useful to be hired during disputes between countries since their fighting ability is rather high, but they are often despised.

“So you wish to put an escort commission?”

“Ah, yes, the specifics are…”

I told him the name of towns the merchant corps are going to go to, the scale of the merchant corps, the schedule adjustment based on the appearance rate of demons, and the necessary time needed for conducting business in the various towns the merchant corps are going to visit.

The reason why the opposite party showed a surprised expression while he was listening to my explanation must be because he thought that I came here not for an official business but for playing like a typical debauchery young nobles. 

I guess it makes sense that he won’t take a child that looks like he’s still a student seriously.

“Then, how many people will be protected?”

“About 7-8 carts. Including the porters, the number of people that need to be protected is around 40 people. Well, this is excluding the cart horses.”

“Hmm… Then since the guards need to work in shifts, the number of mercenaries you need to hire is going to be 40 or more.”

“I suppose so. I think the total number of people that will go, including the mercenaries, is around 150 people or slightly less.”

For a merchant corps that’s going to travel to a dangerous area, this amount isn’t that big. At least for me, who is a count’s heir. If Mazell is here though, he will probably say something like ‘That’s big enough, Welner’.

The reason I need 40 people for the merchants’ corps is that they are going to have many things to bring. For example, clothes.

The mass production of clothes began after the Industrial Revolution. That’s why new clothes in this world, which has yet to reach the Industrial Revolution, are all custom-made. Even if it’s just clothes made using an old design, it’s still expensive. After all, even creating fabric needed for clothes needs time and considerable manpower.

Because of this, ordinary citizens’ clothing is typically old clothes that are no longer worn by people who ordered custom-made clothes. Of course, these second-hand clothes are properly repaired before use.

As a side note, old uniforms of nobles or royal/noble servants are made into scrap and sold to various stores so as to avoid the risk of criminals using the uniforms as a disguise to infiltrate the mansions or the palace.

Even second-hand clothes are pretty expensive, so selling them is quite a profitable business. Because of that, if second-hand clothes are of good quality, merchants purchase them and then sell them for quite handsome prices in rural towns. While completing my commission, Mr. Bierstedt must be planning to also sell second-hand clothes from the capital to the towns he’s going to visit.

Sometimes, second-hand clothes are also recycled into cushions for ceramic and much other stuff. It’s an eco-friendly usage of space.

Then, stuff like second-hand clothes is usually put in the carts, while spices like salt and salt are tied to the horses that pull the cart. So in case of any emergency, the merchants will abandon the carts and run with only horses.

By doing that, the merchants will at least have sufficient funds to carry out their next trade. After all, as long as you don’t fuss about the selling prices, salt can be sold in most towns.

Well, I have prepared a guard for the merchant corps, so this kind of thing won’t happen…I hope.

“What’s left is just selecting the right people.”

“I’ve already asked Luguentz Lazer and Oliver Gekke to do the preliminary selection.”

“I see. To have a connection with those two, you’re truly impressive.”

I don’t understand what’s impressive about it. I’m just going to pass it off as flattery to me.

“That’s everything about my commission.”

“Understood. I will see how many people are available, then”

“I’ll be counting on you.”

Ah, busy busy. As I was about to leave the Mercenaries Guild chanting that in my head, a cheerful and familiar voice called me out from the side.

“Hey, hey, Viscount-sama, I heard you’re looking for people to complete a commission?”

…What a surprise. So it’s not only Laura who is in the capital but this guy too?

“I’m Feli. Can you also let me hear about the job?”