Chapter 48: Chapter 48 - The First Retainer

I stood there looking at the chaos my actions had led to.

I mean sure the men did deserve what they got.

Especially the bastard I sent flying.

But I don’t think the innkeeper deserved to have his diner ruined because of it.

From the backroom a tall lanky man finally came running.

He acted as if he had only now been awoken, but we all knew he had simply been hiding in the backroom waiting for the fighting to stop.

He looked around at the completely wrecked diner with eyes as wide as saucers.

"What happened to my inn?!" The man yelled.

Completely understandable reaction.

Complete silence fell over the room at that moment.

Erick completely ignored the man, strolling over to us.

"What should we do about these drunkards?" He asked, pointing at the men on the ground.

"Are there any guards we can hand them over to?" I asked, looking down at Julia and Catharina standing next to me.

"There are... but they would just release them again." Catharina answered.

This stunned me for a moment.

Was anything legal in this world?

Was there no punishment for disturbing the peace?

Destruction of property?

Assault?

I mean sure if we go by that logic, maybe the girls and I should have been arrested as well.

We had assaulted the group of adventurers still laying on the ground, smoke billowing from their slightly charred bodies.

But that could always be defended away as self defence.

"Why is that? I mean this is destruction of property."

Catharina looked up at me as if I was an idiot.

"That’s not a thing."

Once again, completely flabbergasted.

There really wasn’t any proper law and order in this world.

I mean if everyone could just go around and destroy any property because no one could stop them, that would completely disrupt order.

"The laws in this world are complete shit." I whispered.

"This world?" Catharina asked, but before she could continue pressing me for more answers, like I could see she clearly wanted to, Julia grabbed at her arm, lightly shaking her head.

Erick simply stood in front of us, completely silent and expressionless.

I thought about our situation for a bit longer.

What would be the point of stopping the chaos if we would simply let the men walk away afterward?

"Let’s tie them up, maybe do something that would completely embarrass them, and dump them in front of the guild for the night." I finally said.

Erick raised his brows at those words of mine.

"What would be embarrassing?" He asked.

That idea had already been brewing in my mind since the moment I thought of dumping them in front of the guild.

"Strip them." I said, a grin spreading on my face.

"Nothing could be worse than waking up in public, tied up and bare assed." I said again, trying my best to stop myself from laughing in excitement.

Erick on the other hand did nothing to stop his roaring laughter.

The man even dramatically whipped some tears out of his eyes as he walked over to his men again.

"Keep them in their underwear though, we don’t want any women and children to see something they shouldn’t!" I called out to him, just as the lanky innkeeper came walking over to us.

Julia grabbed Catharina’s hand and dragged her a distance away from us, which I found pretty weird.

She usually wanted to be present in all of my negotiations.

But I just chalked it up to her wanting to tell her sister not to be so impressed by my awesomeness all of the time.

"Are those your men?" The lanky bespectacled man asked.

"The ones still standing, yes." I answered, I figured that sounded pretty cool.

"I’ll compensate you for the door I destroyed, but the rest of the damage was all done by the adventurers, I’ll have my men take the compensation directly from them."

The lanky man turned back to the scene inside, just as Erick and his men started to strip the adventurers, and tie them up.

"What are they doing with them?"

"We’re just going to teach them a little lesson." I answered.

"Hey Erick! Can you grab their purses for us please?" I called out again.

"No, don’t do that!" The innkeeper yelled, but Erick completely ignored him, just following my request with no second thoughts.

Man I loved how efficient soldiers could be.

"Please, if we do that they’ll just come cause trouble for me again." The innkeeper begged.

A smile tugged at my lips immediately.

That was my in after all.

The start of my negotiation.

The perfect entry to make my offer.

"I actually have an offer for you on that front." I said.

"An offer?"

"Yes," I nodded. "You see, these men are part of my mercenary company, I can have two of them stay behind and guard your inn, for the right price of course."

The lanky man burst out laughing.

"I can’t afford the cost of guards," He said. "Don’t you think I would have hired guards already if I could’ve"

Hook, line and sinker.

If he had said that he didn’t need any guards, then the negotiation would have been a lot harder, but if it was all about price...

Well that could be negotiated after all.

And with the cost of everything in this city, I was pretty sure I could undercut almost everyone.

"Well, I’m pretty sure you would be able to afford our services." I said, as I led him over to some of the only remaining intact seating.

"Our cost would be twenty-five silver a month, and you provide rooms and meals for the two men for free."

The man raised his brows in surprise.

"Only twenty-five silver?"

And there it was.

Actually I would have done it for twenty, but I figured the man would have wanted to negotiate, so I upped the price a bit.

"Yeah, and the rooms and meals." I nodded.

The man was silent for a few moments, thinking over his options.

"And they’re trained?" He asked.

"Ex-military." I answered, feeling that should be a sufficient answer.

Once again the man was quiet for some time, I didn’t push him for an answer though.

I already knew what it was going to be after all.

"Okay, you’ve got a deal." The man finally sighed.

"Excellent! I’ll bring the contract to you tomorrow." I said, extending my hand to him with a massive grin on my face.

I had just gotten my first retainer for the newly founded mercenary company after all.

After shaking my hand, the man made his way over to his staff, doling out orders to get the cleanup process started.

I was still sitting there thinking about the content of my standard retainer contract when Julia and Catharina appeared next to me again.

"Well then, it’s decided, from now on I’ll be taking over your training." Catharina said, looking at me with something that seemed a whole hell of a lot like excitement.

"Huh?"