Shawn and the others arrived at an Esterwood guard building, it was simple building, no different from the other buildings save for a small sign at the entrance indicating the Esterwood guard. Aiden Ramsay led them through and into a small conference room. There they were greeted by three men all wearing Esterwood soldier uniforms, huddled over what looked like city maps.

Shawn noticed the one standing the middle seemed to be in charge. The man had a full brown beard with a large Stetson hat on his head, on his uniform was the rank of captain. The captain looked up from his conversation and moved around the table to greet the group.

“Hello there. My name is Captain Monroe, thank you for accepting this job.” Captain Monroe said offering a handshake to the group. Aiden gave a half-hearted shake, while Oskar gave a far more firmer one.

Captain Monroe paused when he got a good look at Oskar’s face.

“I recognized you.” Captain Monroe said in surprise, “Were you able to find you people?” He asked in concern.

Oskar gave Captain Monroe a wide smile, “I was. This right there is one of them.” Indicating to Shawn.

Shawn gave a half smile as he shook Captain Monroe’s hand.

“Hey.” He said simply.

“Hello there. Good to see you arrived safely. What’s your name?” Captain Monroe asked, giving Shawn a hard handshake. Shawn’s hand hurt.

“Shawn.”

“Huh, doesn’t sound like name that would come from the eastern continents.” Captain Monroe said.

“I changed the pronunciation.” Shawn replied.

“I see.” Captain Monroe said before shaking the hands of both Blake and Charron.

“So, what’s the job?” Aiden said once that was over. It didn’t seem like he wanted to be here any longer than he needed to be.

“Right to business I see.” Captain Monroe said, looking to all of them he asked, “Have you all been informed about the mission yet?”

“No idea.” Blake answered.

“Alright then, let me explain.” Captain Monroe said as he headed over to the table on the map.

“We’ve discovered that a gang has set up a smuggling operation in a section of the city.” He explained indicating to a section of a map that had been circled, “Your job is simple, at sundown you are to enter the area and deal with the group. Some officers will enter and clear the supplies afterwards.”

“How many are we dealing with?” Aiden asked.

“No more than ten. We believe there’s going to be a simple smuggling job tonight. You are meant to interrupt it.” Captain Monroe answered.

“What are they smuggling?” Oskar asked.

“Narcotics and money.”

“Hang on.” Shawn interrupted, “With all due respect, this feels like a job meant for the city guard. Why are adventurers and mercenaries participating with this?” Shawn asked.

Captain Monroe looked over to him, “You’re the other registered adventurer, correct? And only joined recently?” Captain Monroe asked.

“Yes.”

“Well to be perfectly honest the section of the city you are entering is essentially the slums. The guards tend not to enter this area, too dangerous.” He admitted, “We were originally going to find some sell swords, but one of the guards that were part of the attacked caravans commended you on your abilities.” Captain Monroe said pointing at Shawn.

“Me?” Shawn asked surprised.

“Yes, Corporal Myles, he said you and your group managed to guide a group of citizens safely to the city. So, we decided to choose you. Also, you and your friends were one of the few folks that would agree to do this.” Captain Monroe said.

“Ah.” Shawn pretended to know who Captain Monroe was talking about. Shawn did recall the one injured guard with the wife and annoying kid, he supposed that was who he was talking about. He also assumed that old Oskar and Lawrence said a few things that made it sounded like Shawn would be interested in these jobs.

“Whatever the case. Can we get back to the mission?” Aiden said impatiently.

“Right.” Captain Monroe said, getting back on to the matter at hand, “You are to take down the smugglers, secure the narcotics and dispose of them if able, if not some guards will. That is all, any more questions?”

“Nope sounds good to me.” Aiden said bored. Oskar nodded in agreement.

“Alright then, good luck on your mission.” Captain Monroe said as he guided them through the door. The rest followed them.

***

It took a couple of hours for the group to reach the section of city where the smuggling was taking place. On this trip Shawn, who was at the back of the que, noticed how sudden the change of scenery was from slums to the rest of the city. It almost felt as if after walking through an alleyway he had been transported into another world.

All the lively chatter and commotion from earlier had all but replaced by the cautious stares and murmurs of those living in the slums. Shawn could swear that he felt the eyes of people through old dusty windows peak at them as they moved. People around them hurriedly moved out of the way as they moved along the streets.

Shawn felt no animosity from the people here, just general wary distrust from them. Not that he could blame them. This place seemed to suck the joy out of people. In comparison to the rest of the city, everything was so much older and poorly kept. Everything seemed so dark and dreary.

Captain Monroe who left before they had arrived, had mentioned how rarely Esterwood guards would patrol this area. There was but a small unit of guards stationed to patrol the entire area of the slums. Really the only times a large presence of Esterwood guards would ever gather here is when some sort of major event was happening.

Just being here for a few minutes Shawn understood why, the place was terrible. No wonder they hire people for this type of job. And why they tend to look for mercs than adventurers. No saine adventurer would want this type of job. Looking at Oskar ahead of him conversing, or rather buttering up Aiden, he continued to think; Of course Oskar would readily accept this.

Shawn had to admit that he was impressed how Oskar and most likely Lawrence were able to get into the good graces of the guards to get this job though. Most likely they did some of their sweet talking to the caravan guard to get this opportunity.

While Shawn wasn’t exactly a fan of dealing with a load of low brow gang members, getting into the good graces of government workers was probably the smart thing to do. Only issue Shawn had was that he still had no idea what the commission was about. He never got to see it; Oskar dragged him along before he could. Going to talk to him about that. He thought.

Aiden led them into an old, abandoned warehouse. Upon entering the run-down warehouse, they moved up the creaky old stares.

“According to the map, the exchange is going occur over there.” Aiden said pointing towards a small empty lot.

“So we just wait until night?” Blake asked.

“Yep.”

“Alright then, get yourselves some rest as we wait for those criminals to arrive. Blake, keep watch.” Oskar said as he tried find a comfortable place to sit down.

Shawn gave a small sigh and leaned onto a dusty wall, immediately regretting his decision as he could the feel the dust sticking to his jacket. Shawn saw Charron wander over to him and began to converse.

“What do you think of the new guy?” Charron asked in a low voice.

“Still don’t trust him.” Shawn whispered back.

“I get you. There’s something about him that makes me feel uneasy.” Charron agreed.

“Doesn’t help that with all that expensive equipment on him he doesn’t have a helmet anywhere.” Shawn joked.

“Why don’t you have a helmet?” Charron asked.

“Because I’ve given all my money to feed you leeches.” Shawn said with a smirk. Most of the money he had made had gone to paying for the supplies and amenities of their base camp. The rest went to food and replacing his lost equipment. With constantly completing quests he had actually made more money than the others gang members so far. Though that was in part due to the fact that everyone else was setting up camp and planning the next steps for the past week.

“Heh, barely feeding us, you need to work harder.” Charron joked back, recalling the bags of pocket change Shawn has been awarded so far for his quests.

“Well, with the jobs I’m taking right now I shouldn’t need a helmet. But him on the other hand, well I doubt that armour is just for show, he probably took some big jobs. Yet no helmet.” Shawn said giving a quick glance over to Aiden Ramsay, who was busy polishing a large knife and paid no attention to them.

“Yeah, either he’s very confident or very good.” Charron said.

“Guess we’ll find out when the job starts.” Shawn concluded. As he

After around a minute of silence as they were all checking their gear. Charron spoke again to Shawn, “So you haven’t been in at the base much.”

“I’ve been busy.” Shawn deflected.

“Busy renting rooms in inns?” Charron questioned.

Shawn gave no reply as he focused on checking his equipment. Charron gave him a look of disapproval.

“Shawn, why haven’t you been back at base with everyone?” Charron asked.

“I don’t like the place, uncomfortable.” Shawn said, still not looking at him.

“More uncomfortable than those tiny rooms and hard mattresses filled with ticks at those cheap guild rooms?” Charron questioned again.

“Okay, so maybe I don’t want to be with the group right now.” Shawn admitted. “Besides the more expensive rooms in the guild are fine.” He continued.

“Shawn, we need you there right now.” Charron lectured.

“Oskar hasn’t said anything.”

“He hasn’t said anything because he knows you’ll return eventually.” Charron said.

“So why do you have an issue?” Shawn asked.

“Because right now, the group needs you.”

“Why, what can I do?” Shawn scoffed.

“It’s mainly Cella. She still hasn’t recovered from losing her brother.” Charron explained, “You’re the same age as her. Talk to her. Right now, she needs help.”

“She’s older than me.”

“By less than a year. She needs a friend to talk to.” Charron stated.

“How would I ever be considered a friend?” Shawn asked.

“Shawn.”

“Fine, I’ll check on her. Not sure how it would help, but fine.”

“It’s better than nothing.” Charron said as he began to look through his own gear.

Shawn gave an annoyed exhale as he continued to prepare.