Mercenaries and adventurers were separated by a fine line, and the same went for their guilds. After all, wasn''t this a world where plenty of people worked as both?


    You''d be a mercenary while escorting merchant caravans on long trips, briefly switch to adventurer when hunting monsters in remote areas along the way, become a mercenary again for small territory wars or bandit subjugation requests, and maybe do some highway robbery on the side if you found easy targets - that was the average in this world.


    So naturally the Mercenary''s Guild was bigger than the Adventurer''s Guild in the Imperial capital. They needed mercenaries to escort merchant caravans departing from the archipelago and attend to bored noble lords.


    "Please come this way and have a seat!"


    Even people who were adventurers elsewhere became mercenaries upon entering the archipelago. Where people gathered, money followed, and with money came bigger buildings. Dealing with nobles had made the guild itself more upscale.


    Instead of a cheap building where drunks rolled around in their own vomit, the guild members worked systematically in a clean building that could be called modern-style wooden mansion.


    The receptionist, whose size exceeded even Grace and Irene''s and had viewers screaming "THICC," led us to the counter. With partitions between desks, it felt more like a government office than a guild.


    "You said you wanted information? What kind are you looking for? While we can''t investigate individuals like the Information Guild, we can compile local rumors for you."


    "Strange incidents related to monster waves. Especially cases where monster corpses vanish leaving only mana stones."


    "Oh good, not investigating specific people! Though with such broad information, there might be lots of false rumors mixed in - would that be alright?"


    "You can request cooperation from local temples and Magic Towers in the hero party''s name."


    "Ah, the hero party... Oh?"


    The receptionist who''d been eagerly filling out forms behind the counter suddenly looked up at my last words.


    A handsome blonde man with blue eyes, armor, and warhammer


    An exotic dark-haired, dark-eyed beauty in robes


    Two people matching the hero and holy sword owner''s descriptions stood side by side, backed by a nun, archer and lady knight perfectly matching the hero party''s lineup. At the receptionist''s startled voice, waiting mercenaries turned to look.


    Being the Imperial capital''s Mercenary''s Guild, there weren''t any low-rank thugs like Hans Kim stumbling in claiming they wanted to be mercenaries. Even as Imperials, they apparently had the discernment to recognize the Kingdom''s hero.


    After all, how could fellow professionals not know about all the gold the Imperial trainee commanders had scattered in the tower while working with the hero?


    "Hey, is that really the hero?"


    "Looks like it..."


    "Who''d be crazy enough to impersonate them here?"


    "True, if you''re gonna scam, pretend to be a fallen noble or something..."


    Being capable Imperial mercenaries, they seemed fired up for various reasons - curry favor with the temple, get something from the Magic Tower, make their names known to the Imperial family and nobles.


    We left the guild watching them hurriedly prepare to scatter east, west and north toward their connections, like small companies chasing big corporate contracts.


    "What now?"


    "Get lodging and rest for a month."


    "...A-a month?!"


    "Huh, why? Is something wrong?"


    I was thinking we''d rent long-term lodging and explore for side quests in the archipelago, maybe find something connected to my past - but Han Se-ah was shocked.


    When I turned questioningly, Grace, Katie and Irene who''d been discussing lodging and markets also looked worriedly at Han Se-ah. Wasn''t it common sense that before Magic Tower gates, you''d spend weeks traveling by carriage just for one request?


    A month would be tight just to receive and verify reports from across the vast Empire. Even that timeline required temple and Magic Tower cooperation.


    "Uh, um. No wait. Did I say I''d just sit here doing nothing for a month? We''ll find Imperial side quests or story content or something. Just filling in this black map while chatting will take two weeks easy."


    -Even with the gate blocked, a whole month? Hmm lol do we have to wait that long


    -Can''t we just get Teacher and some mercs to break the gate?


    -But damn the archipelago is huge, walked 40 minutes from Magic Tower to guild and look at the minimap lol


    -Could do a month of We Got Married just riding circuit carriages on dates with Teacher Roland


    -What We Got Married month are you on about, go watch something else if that''s what you want


    But that common sense didn''t fly with viewers demanding quick, simple entertainment. The game scenario had locked progress but they didn''t care, just jumped to criticizing Han Se-ah. Maybe they were acting up more now that the violent valleys of that ginger girl at the Mercenary Guild were out of sight.


    Not that even Goddess-mocking genius clown Han Se-ah would bat an eye.


    With her my-pace attitude ignoring viewer counts whether thousands or millions, she smoothly dismissed all the hate and whining by moving her camera drone. As it soared up to capture the archipelago streets in one view, it focused on a small cafe.


    All the nonsense vanished as the camera ghostly found light-dressed young ladies, replaced by rising flame emojis.


    Like they were chimps in the chat getting pacified by cleavage whenever they acted up, seriously...


    Though I understood.


    Enjoy the chappy!