Home is in the heart

I arrived at the farm late at night, they were all with considerable mental fatigue after the exhausting round of questions from the city council members, I met up with the Red Claw members who were already having dinner, "looks like you had a hard time apparently Lif", said Val, "if they didn't stop asking me questions, it was very annoying", I answered, "tomorrow we will know what will happen", Gulmir said from another table, "I feel tired", I said, leaving the table, I was not lying in truth I felt tired, I had thought all the way in the words of old Ralph, I only ate enough to minimally satiate my stomach and retired to sleep after a quick bath.

The next day while we were having breakfast, an employee of the Merchants Guild came to inform us that for us the investigation was concluded, we would be taken to the Merchants Guild headquarters and receive the reward for the escort mission, on the way I asked the employee about what would happen with the investigation and he told me that I should not worry about that, now it was in the hands of the city authorities, they would send reconnaissance groups to map the trails in the mountains, also ask about the crest engraved on the locket, the clerk told me that he could not give me more information, but he said that the council members had recognized the crest, had even found out the identity of the elegant man, "Wow, they are diligent and fast-moving", I exclaimed.

"What will you guys do now? Will you go back to Ciliana?", ask the Red Claws, "no, we are thinking of going west, we will try to meet people from our native home", said Vance, "what are you going to do from now on? Lif", asked Val, "First I will go to register with the Mercenaries Guild, I have a letter of recommendation that they gave me in Ciliana, after that I will go around the city a little, everything is new to me, after all the only other city I know is Ciliana but they are so different", I said while smiling, "so Lif wants to know THOSE places", Val said with a disgusted face, there was a chorus of laughter, although there was nothing special between Val and me, she was the closest to me among all the members of her group, "you caught me!", I said making a very forced embarrassed face, which made Val make a very angry red face.

"Mmm after all the red light district here is very big", said Gilbert with his usual expressionless face, "HO-HO-HOW DO YOU KNOW ABOUT THAT !!!", stuttering cry Sophia in surprise, "We only heard Mr. Gulmir speak yesterday", Jonas said in a bored tone trying to calm her down, then a shy giggle caught our attention and everyone was silent looking in the direction of the owner of that laugh, "I hope we can all laugh like that again later", Katarina said cheerfully, everyone was very surprised as it was very rare to hear her speak because of her shy personality.

"Do not hesitate, we will surely have many stories to tell", I replied, "if it would be nice to meet again", said Vance, "if everything goes well we should be back for the beginning of the fall", said Gilbert, "Ah I know! Let's meet again for the Dumai harvest festival", Val said cheerfully as he hit his left hand with his right fist, "so it's a deal, I'll work here until they come back and we'll all go to the festival together", I replied, "YES", they shouted in chorus, "be careful on your trip", I said goodbye to them, It was an emotional goodbye, Val kept yelling at me as they walked away.

I walked down a wide street, I was in the commercial sector, in the eastern district, between the fifth and fourth walls very close to one of the great access gates to the city, I stared at a large, very elegant looking building, it was the headquarters of the Mercenaries Guild, upon entering I was surprised with the great difference with the headquarters of Ciliana, the Ciliana townhouse reminded one of an old western bar from the old cowboy movies.

On the other hand, the Dumai headquarters was reminiscent of the elegant reception of a multinational bank, he was on a totally different level, instead of seeing tough thug-like mercenaries drinking inside, I saw what appeared to be elegant businessmen, probably representatives of the mercenary groups, I also saw what seemed to be mercenaries who worked alone or in pairs, seemed to take notes from the advertisements, but even they had an air of elegance totally different from that of Ciliana's mercenaries.

I was the target of stares for a few seconds but then everyone went back to their own business, it was a totally new atmosphere for me, very different from the one in the border city, I approached the huge reception, "Good morning! Do you want to register? or will you issue an application?", a young man asked politely, "I wish to establish the Dumai region as my area of ​​operations", I said as I handed him my nameplate and my letter of recommendation, "I see, a recommendation from the Merchants Guild, he has experience fighting and as a tracker", said the man while reading the letter, "it will be better if you go to speak to one of the supervisors first", the receptionist said again.

The receptionist rang a small bell and a woman dressed as an executive secretary approached, "please can you accompany her to be interviewed by the supervisor", said the receptionist politely, while handing him my identification and the letter of recommendation, "please monsieur", said the secretary while bowing gracefully, the treatment and manners were light years away from those used on the border, that was not to say that the Ciliana headquarters employees were not polite as they always treated everyone courteously and patiently, only the Dumai headquarters employees used much more refined protocol.

I was led into an office, the secretary gently knocked on an elegantly carved door, "Come in" was heard from inside, the secretary opened the door and I was invited to pass, inside a well-lit and tidy office I saw a large L-shaped desk occupied by two people, an older man dressed elegantly and a middle-aged woman dressed just like the secretary who guided me to the office, the secretary who had guided me handed over my identification, the letter of recommendation and withdrew bowing, closing the door on leaving, the man examined both and handed the identification to the secretary who began to take notes, "take a seat Monsieur Greenhill", he said and pointed to the chair in front of his desk, "thank you", I said and settled in the chair in front of him.

"I am Sancor, supervisor of the Dumai branch of the Mercenaries Guild, seems to be a trustworthy person Monsieur Greenhill, the Merchants Guild does not usually give many recommendations, expert hunter, reliable tracker, you have a good education, an impressive record and your recent feat in the mountains, now do you want to expand your horizons?", asked the supervisor and handed the letter of recommendation to his secretary, "Yes, I wish to make Dumai City my base of operations for at least this season", I said confidently.

"I understand, I would recommend starting with the peripheral areas of the city, the internal security of the kingdom has been greatly deteriorated by conflicts between the nobility, many small farming villages have been threatened, for this reason, we are currently short of manpower due to the continuous attacks on the caravans", supervisor Sancor said in a very serious way, "is the situation that bad in the kingdom?", I asked incredulously, "I'm afraid it's even worse in some territories, the surroundings of Dumai are relatively calm, but in the central areas the situation is chaotic", supervisor Sancor said regretfully.

The conflict between nobles seems to be worse than I thought, they seem so blinded by ambition that they do not realize that they are destroying their country little by little, "but will that not incite neighboring countries to want to take advantage of the situation?", ask worried, I did not want to be unnecessarily involved in a war and less in one started by noble fools.

"Certainly the situation is worrying, I am glad to know that you are smart enough to see the big picture of the situation", said supervisor Sancor, then he opened a desk drawer and took out a huge stamp, "I will recommend his name to the chiefs of the peoples, for someone of his ability it shouldn't be a problem to deal with small groups of bandits, you don't seem like the reckless, glory-hungry Monsieur Greenhill type", Supervisor Sancor said, "of course my own safety always takes priority", I said with a smile.

"Since Monsieur Greenhill is a more intelligent person than the average and since we have suspicions that the bandit groups are being financed by the nobles, you will be paid well for any information you get from the bandits", said the supervisor, "I will be attentive to any circumstance", I replied, then the secretary handed him a sheet of paper that she had carefully written and the supervisor put a striking stamp on it, "This will be your file, we like to keep a careful record of all our assets", said the supervisor and asked me to sign the sheet.

"With this, we officially recognize him as a mercenary capable of operating in this region, you can ask at the reception if there is a task available that fits your ability", said the supervisor, and the secretary politely handed me my identification, "thank you very much for your kindness and guidance", I replied, "it is our responsibility to properly guide the mercenaries after all our credibility is very important if you have any questions, do not hesitate to ask", answered supervisor Sancor, "thank you very much for your consideration, I have no more questions", I replied, "so I wish you success from now on", said supervisor Sancor and we shook hands, I said goodbye to him and the secretary, then I left and went to the reception.