Day 60

I’ve made my base in Turqo near Meldrid forest. For a province’s capital, they sure placed it near the border with the highest security threat. I heard the Lord did that so he can provide armaments immediately if there’s an attack. A sound plan but it seems reckless, but it shows that he really cares for peace, huh. Still reckless.

In any case, today is one of my fulfilling days yet! I went back to the river as I usually did, every 2 days, hoping my siblings will arrive here the same way I did and…

Ta-da! Behold! The self-proclaimed “Lord of Darkness” an avid gamer and a good shot! My lazy li’l brother: Aidan! Haha… how I miss this fluffy hair.

Since I’ve found a trend, I thought of waiting for the others the same way. I explained the situation with Andi and the information I’ve gathered so far.

Onto serious matters, Andi can surely use the same magic. A little low on quality, but only because he doesn’t understand the concept. He was able to wrap his fists with elements, through sheer will of wanting to do it. Out of the three of us, he was the closest to Li in terms of combat abilities, especially in unarmed combat. Though he’s a good shot, he liked to be “hands-on” on jobs like Li which caused him to use it like that. A muscle head, yes, my little brother is also a muscle head. I’ve had enough with Li, but it seems little Andi is following on her footsteps. Hah… still, this is good! I wonder if he can use the bow in replacement for a rifle?

Since I have the muscle now, I can do more. It’s time to expand our operations! Yay! For now, as long as we don’t know how we came here, we won’t know how to go back. But, do we have to? No, I’ll answer that once we’re all together.

For now, our new goals are:

Register Andi (Brawler/Ranger?)

More money - can’t hurt to have more

Prepare for Li and Nadia’s arrival

Info gathering - Information dealer and Dragon’s Eye

Good, I’ll have to sell my rare stuff to get information. (I feel like I just betrayed my collector’s heart by writing that!)

This is for survival, yes… If I survive, I can collect more! Now then…

***

It seems the Merchant Guild also deals with black market dealings. It feels good to have someone watch your back when you do recon! I’m so glad I found Andi! A couple of bribes here and there, and we’ve found a proper information dealer. People here have looser mouths with so little money, too easy!

This is just a contingency, but protocol is still protocol. Li made this our one rule to follow if we ever separate in a mission without funds and info. It’s quite difficult now because we don’t have any safe houses here but information is easy to come by. In case of emergency separation: without funds and info, we’ll have to establish ourselves.

If I miss them in the river or if they’re found or maybe something along those lines, they can at least follow a trail that’ll lead to us, be it one of our known fake names getting popularity or something similar. In which case, the current lead we’ll use will be Dragon’s Eye.

It may be in poor taste but this name has quite a ring to the four of us. No way in hell will we forget our job as its members. It’s a shame, but I’ll have Dragon’s Eye do its purpose even here. It’s also a plus because now, we can gather information in this world’s underbelly! (Oh how I want to say that word! Underbelly!!! It’s in writing but it’ll do! Haha!)

So now, a job. Dragon’s Eye’s purpose is not entirely noble and it’s dirty but it’s too deeply ingrained to each of us. It’ll be hard to forget about it now that we need it the most. We’ll be more well-known due to its purpose, we’ll have to be noisier than before.

Now for our first job: Subjugation of bandits south of Turqo.

You’d think hunters will do this but as their name goes, Hunters only hunt game or in this case, they will only hunt monsters. Compared to humans, monsters are even a larger threat due to random killing and eating, thus their establishment. Well, if you compare, bandits only attack those with money while monsters will attack anybody that are edible, make sense. So, Assassination Leagues often do the job. But it’s unwanted since getting the reward will have a high chance of getting caught, especially one that deals with getting rewards from authorities.

But what does the local soldiers do? Nothing. It’s the never-ending jurisdiction excuse. It costs money to have the soldiers mobilize so they leave it alone. And here I was garnering respect for the local lord…

***

I was worried, but it looks like jobs like these can be done alone. Andi didn’t even break a sweat! You’re too chill oh little brother of mine! At least, we can do around four or five jobs a week, including recon. We need to ask for compensation from the lord, if we can, I won’t say no to money.

After subjugating the bandits and freeing the women they kidnapped (and taking the loot for ourselves!), there seems to be a stray in our midst. A girl around her late teens, she keeps saying that she’ll repay us with her life and for the umpteenth time, I told her that we don’t need payment. But Andi can’t help it due to her dog ears. Well, she’s too much like a dog, is she one of those beastmen that secluded themselves in the mountains? Well, it can’t hurt to have her around? Can it?

***

Andi’s been treating the dog like his pet. What’re you thinking dear brother?! She’s a person! A person, I tell you! Well, I can’t deny that she’s cute. Reminds me of Frappe, and her ears are fluffy and floppy. Now that I think about it, she looks like a spaniel with her fuzzy orange-brown ears and long fluffy tail. Her brown eyes looks sad when she’s left alone. Frappe… is that you?! I feel like crying, will Li be happy seeing a Frappe look alike? She loved Frappe very much, maybe I can keep her? Andi likes her too, so maybe… yes, I’ll do that! Is there a cat beastman too? Maybe I can find a Socks look-alike too!

As I thought, this is the most fulfilling day ever!