Isekai Again [Book 3 is Out]

Year 1452, month 10, day 29

“Guys, your beers are on me today,” I said with a gentle smile.

“Oh, Sir Han, you are as generous as always.” One of the soldiers said with a chuckle.

It was around an hour or two after lunch. We were currently waiting outside the city, near the citizen entrance. There stood the girls, some employees of the Questers Guild stacked documents, people to help labor, and of course, the city guards waiting in front of the city gate.

“No, no, I am always thankful to you guys.” I shook my head as if denying. “It would be a hassle for our men to enter the city if not for you. Even though they all have the right to enter already…”

“That is to prevent anyone suspicious from going inside freely.” Another guard who looked like a more senior one pointed out. “But we know you and your men already. We even witnessed them leaving the city. So as long as the numbers add up, we won’t stall you much.”

“Yes, thank you.”

It has been 2 weeks since the caravan departed with 88 people and 10 carriages for the expedition. It was to collect materials, all kinds of herbs, and animal parts from the hunt. As winter is nearly upon us, this will provide us with enough extra supplies to fill our storage.

It was not that the storages were empty. Actually, it was the opposite. They were nearly full. However, I made it so that everyone would work at full capacity, so the storages would barely hold until the end of winter.

Even after winter, we would have to wait a bit more for the weather to get warm, go hunting, herb collection, and travel to gather supplies. Only after enough resources were gathered could we start the processing.

The goods we will get from this expedition will push our storage to the limit. We will even have some surplus, but we can find a way to use them anytime. The resource gathering was not the main purpose for this expedition after all.

“Master, I think it is them.” Wyn came close to me and said as she pointed toward a distant crowd.

We had received a falcon message saying they would be arriving in the city a few hours after noon. So, I ordered people to gather necessary documents and personnel to receive the expedition team at the city gate.

One of the guards hopped on a horse and ran toward them. Then he made them divert their course a bit as if to show that they were one of the expected people and had gotten approval beforehand.

So the caravan did not have to spend unnecessary time because of procedures. After around a dozen minutes, the caravan finally arrived in front of us. Most of the people looked tired but fine; some had bandages on their limbs, and most of the carriages were full to the brim. My lips curled into a smile as I observed the pleasant sigh.

“Hello, boss.” The alchemist whom I appointed as the leader of the expedition stepped forward and greeted me with a contented smile. His outlook was also haggard, but his energy seemed to be in place.

“Welcome back,” I said with a smile and put my hand on his shoulder. “Just give a general report for the guards to inspect, then get to rest. We can talk about details later.”

“Yes, Sir.” He nodded and explained the overall result of the expedition and important events.

In the three days of travel, they had no issues until reaching their destination. They rested the night at the camp and started collecting herbs as they planned beforehand. The gathering was quite generous, as they brought 2 wagons of herbs, mushrooms, some rare minerals they found in the mountains, and even fruits and vegetables special for the forest of dungeons.

As for the other 8 wagons, they were filled with monster parts such as furs, fangs, claws, meat, and some internal organs that can be used for alchemy and herbalism. The meat was hard to preserve and took so much space, so they tried to store only the most precious animals’ most expensive parts.

The remaining ones were either eaten by them, used for luring prey, or just left behind. Despite it being the outskirts and not having a common occurrence of monsters from dungeons appearing, there were some. And as agreed beforehand, the dropped coins were collected by the ones who killed them. We only asked for ingredients.

There were a few group attacks that made the situation dangerous, but they were ready for most of the situations. There were 32 guards who were good at combat after all. Not only that, every single one of the 88 people had both equipment and training to defend themselves; alchemists and herbalists are included.

There were a few people who got injured in every big situation, but I instructed them not to spare any potions or herbs on people who were doing their jobs properly. So they had no serious problems after they were taken care of properly.

The alchemist was responsible for the general direction and goal of the expedition. However, the guard duty of the whole team belonged to the guards. So the guard captain whom I personally selected was responsible for that and had authority to decide the actions of the whole team when it was a critical situation.

This expedition was quite a big success. Even without counting the exact numbers and types of resources gathered, I could see a fair share of valuable ones. Some of them are already asked as quests from our clients, and some can be used to produce equipment, clothes, and utensils for our personnel.

“That is enough and well.” I stopped him after he gave his report with enough information to understand the scale of the situation. “You did well.”

“Thank you, boss.” He said with a smile.

Then my line of sight turned toward the guards. There were a lot of workers, and some of them had been taking their test as questers, so they should be checked, but not now. It is actually not the guards but some people among the guards.

All of them were wearing decent equipment and had sharp postures. Among them, 8 people especially attracted my attention. They were also people we wanted to inspect. In this setting, there was no way they would be cautious and think that I was only focused on them. I was just looking toward the guards after all.

There was a group of 6. Those people were always together and ready for a fight. Even now, they were in a formation and ready for any attack. One of them was a knight at the forefront as a tanker with a large shield and short sword in his hands. Another one was at his right back side, and he was a sword master with a long sword. At the same angle, but on the left, was a spear master with a spear in his right hand and a small shield that attacked on his left elbow, about the size of his face at most.

There were 3 people that are rather backward. A rogue that uses 2 daggers was close to the sword master, and one of his hands was on one of his daggers on his waist. There was also a mage, which is so rare to see in a group like that. He was looking forward with an expressionless face, blankly.

However, even though the whole group was quite peculiar for a guild party, the most weird, but authoritative one was a priest that looks like the leader at the very back. He had a sharp and straight posture, ready to give a command at any time. For some reason, I could not grasp why a priest was a leader and looked like he had the most experience.

The group was indeed interesting, but there were 2 other people who needed much more attention. As soon as I turned toward them, I forced myself to maintain my expression. I barely managed it because their job was not what I expected to see.

***

Haruto Matsumoto

Race: Human

Sex: Male

Status: Normal

Equipment:

Bastion Long Sword ◙+◙+◙+

Steel Breastplate ◙◙

Strengthened Leather Helmet ◙◙

Strengthened Leather Gloves ◙

Strengthened Leather Footwear ◙

Mithril Amulet ◙

Mithril Ring ◙

Job: Hero Level 12

***

***

Min-suk Cho

Race: Human

Sex: Male

Status: Normal

Equipment:

Bastion Long Sword ◙+◙+◙+

Leather-Steel Breastplate ◙◙

Strengthened Leather Helmet ◙◙

Strengthened Leather Gloves ◙

Strengthened Leather Footwear ◙

Mithril Amulet ◙

Mithril Ring ◙

Job:

Sword Master Level 36

Rogue Level 22

***

What came out was shocking. Their names for one thing, but their jobs were also something I did not expect. One looked like a teenager with the hero job. It alone was enough to be intrigued. However, the problem was that whenever he opened his intelligence card, it was shown as a sword master. That’s why people think of him as such.

The other one was even more bizarre. He had two jobs at once. Even though a hero job alone has more stat bonuses than these two jobs combined, it is impossible to attain compared to the hero job, which is extremely hard to get.

Their names are also weird for this world and familiar to me at the same time. This nearly proves it. They are transmigrators like me. Seeing how their names are familiar, it is probably from the same planet too.

I know somehow that they had different ethnicities based on their names and looks. However, I can’t muster which country they are from. It must be because of that memory-erasing handicap I got at the beginning.

Regardless, I need to approach this matter carefully. Who are they? Where are they from? They are clearly moving with some sort of organization, aren’t they? What should I do?

This kind of question whirl winded inside my mind for a split second before I smiled and glanced at the guards. Just a few seconds passed, so there was no change in their expression or posture at all.

“You did a good job,” I said in a bit loud voice, so everyone would hear. “As promised, you will get your reward for completing the quest perfectly…” Then I turned toward the carriages as if taking a look and added, “It seems like the loot is more than we expected. You can expect quite hefty bonuses based on the loot you hunted.”

“Thank you, sir.” They cheered and thanked me.

“Now, go and get your mission reward. Then take a good rest. We will count all the carriages and calculate your bonuses.” I informed them and added, “It will take a few days, so feel free to participate in another quest or just wait all you want. We will inform you when it is time.”

With that, they left for the guild, took their rewards for the quest, which is 3 gold coins per person. Laborers also took their money from the guild, which is 1 gold coin per person. Also, herbalists got 5 gold coins, and alchemists took 20 gold coins for both their contribution and leader role.

There were 88 people, so the payment should be 50 gold coins for the workers, 96 gold coins for the guards, 25 gold coins for herbalists, and 20 gold coins for the alchemist, which was a total of 191 gold coins. However, 10 of the workers, 12 of the guards, and 4 of the herbalists were my slaves. So I will be paying only 125 gold coins.

Of course, there will be bonuses that are higher than just their quest reward, but again, I won’t need to pay for 12 guards for that bonus. Even though it takes a bit of coins to upkeep them, they deserve what they take.

“Sir Han!” Then one of the city guards called me. “We are done with inspection. You may go in.”

With the permission of the city guards, we took the carriages inside and drove them to the Guild site. All remaining was to record the collected resources, calculate the bonus each individual deserves, and distribute these resources to the place where they will be used.

“Phew!” We let out a sigh of relief. “Everyone, good job. Take a day or two off and rest.”

“Thank you, sir.” One of the personnel said with a tired smile.

“Then, let me confirm the numbers, sir,” Silva said. And everyone in the room looked at the papers in front of them to check if what he would say matches theirs. “We estimate the total value of the resources is around 1,100 gold coins. 20 percent of them will be going to the clothing sector, 30 percent will be used for the armory, 30 percent will be sent to create potions and medicines. 15 percent are for the existing quest, so they will be handed to the client. The remaining 5 percent will be stored and used for miscellaneous works.”

“What about the bonuses for guards?” I asked. “The amount we got from the hunt was the biggest part of the loot.”

“Yes, sir.” He said and skimmed the document in his hand before answering, “It would be appropriate to give them around 150 gold coins if we may be extremely generous as you suggested, sir.”

150 gold coins means close to 5 gold coins per guard. There were 32 guards; 12 of them were my slaves, so we can pay 5 gold coins each for 20 guards, totaling 100 gold coins. Adding 125 gold coins, which we paid to the whole expedition 3 days ago when they returned, it will be a total of 225 gold coins.

1,100 gold coins is the amount these resources are worth right now. It will keep increasing as we process and produce something more useful by using them. Even without it, our current profit will be close to 900 gold coins. And even if I extract the whole operation, slave and facility upkeep, and spend time, it will be more than 600 gold coins.

“Good.” I smiled with satisfaction. “There are 100 gold coins here. Pay 5 gold coins for each guard as a bonus. Also, call all the slaves who participated in the expedition and give a banquet at the refectory. Give them a good feast.”

“Yes, sir,” Silas said, and others also stood up with a nod. Then all of them left.