Two days after Ryo returned from the Lordâs mansion. Three days after the battle with the Devils.
The four from Room 10, including Ryo, were having breakfast at the guild cafeteria.
âFinally, itâs our first escort request!â
The Swordsman Niles was feeling very excited.
âHey Niles, your body wonât hold up if you start feeling so excited so soon.â
Ryo warned Niles as he was getting too excited and had a hard time eating.
âBut Iâm glad. With Ryo joining, everything will be fine even if something happens.â
The Priest Etho expressed his thoughts while eating in a graceful manner that showed his upbringing.
âThis is my first time working with people from another party.â
Amon, the only F-rank adventurer who was an Apprentice Swordsman, also couldnât hide his excitement.
âYouâll be fine if you do exactly as what you heard from Abel last night. Heâs still the leader of a B-rank party despite how he is. He probably has a lot of experience.â
The four of them were taught by Abel, who they happened to meet at the cafeteria last night, about the fundamentals of an escort request.
âWith an escort of ten, there will probably be five wagons. Well, in some cases it can increase to about seven, but the manner to arrange them doesnât change. Typically they will assign three escorts for the front wagon, three escorts for the rear wagon, and the remaining four will spread out to defend the middle.â
âWe canât rest in the wagons, right? ⌠What a shame.â
âYeah, Ryoâs stamina is bottomless anyway so you can just keep walking. The wagons are naturally full of goods, so there is no place for the escorting adventurers to ride on. The escort arrangement I mentioned earlier may change depending on the member composition. Usually, it would change according to the number of Priests, the number of long-range attackers such as Magicians and Archers, and so on. This time you guys are teaming up with Delong, right? They have a lot of experience in escort requests so itâs okay to leave everything including the placement to them.â
As for the luggage to bring, all of them learned about that during the beginnerâs course so there were no particular problems in that aspect.
âThe beginnerâs course is really brilliant âŚâ
No one heard Abelâs mutter.
After breakfast, the four of them headed to the meeting place for the escort requests, although it was a little early.
âLet me ask again ⌠are the three of you sure that you want to name your party ăRoom 10ă?â
Ryo had been asking the same question several times since yesterday.
Since Niles and Etho were promoted to E-rank, they could establish a party name but the party name they chose was ăRoom 10ă.
âOh, of course. That represents us the best.â
Niles said confidently.
It was possible to tell who came up with the idea by that ⌠well, it was also possible to draw that conclusion even if he didnât say anything.
Etho had a forced smile as he looked at him.
Amon had a troubled look but he didnât reject it.
Well, at the end of the day, ăRoom 10ăwas organized centered on Niles.
There were no particular rules regarding party names.
It seemed that only names that slander someone or something would be rejected.
For example, a party name like ăAbelâs an idiotă would probably not pass.
Also, when words of royalty such as ăKingâsă and ăRoyalâsă were included in the party name, the guild would force them to change it.
It was similar to how the word ăRoyală could not be used freely in England on modern Earth.
In that sense, the rules were relatively loose so it seemed that the adventurers based in the City of Rune had quite a wide variety of party names.
Putting aside ăCrimson Swordă and ăWhite Brigadeă.
ăRed Dragon and Blue Wolfă
ăKreis-sama and friendsă
ăArmor Brigadeă
ăLetâs become Blacksmiths togetheră
ăCoffee Makeră
ăSwitchbackă
ăDevilă and so on âŚ
For the last entry, after the dungeon teleport incident, the guild staff apparently had a few words with them âŚ
Of course, they had nothing to do with the incident, the party name was chosen because it sounded strong, and it seemed that none of the members were worshippers of the Devils.
In the first place, it wasnât certain if there was something like a Devil religion.
And this time, the party that Room 10 + Ryo would collaborate with was ăCoffee Makeră led by the D-rank adventurer Delong.
It was still more than 30 minutes until the gathering time, but six wagons were already lined up at the meeting place near the south gate.
As the four approached, a man who looked like a merchant approached them.
âYou all are the adventurers who took up the escort request this time, right? Iâm Ugo, the person who put together this trading company. Nice to meet you.â
Only Ryo, who was next to Amon, heard him take a sigh of relief as he was a little worried about encountering a high-handed merchant.
âIâm Niles from Room 10. And these are Etho, Amon, and Ryo.â
The introduction was done without any problems.
Then, they heard a voice from behind.
âOh, you guys are early.â
Looking back, they saw six adventurers approaching.
âThey are the members of ăCoffee Makeră who will be escorting us too.â
The merchant Ugo was acquainted with ăCoffee Makeră because they had escorted his company several times.
âGood morning, Delong, Iâll be in your care once again.â
âUgo-san, itâs been some time. Weâll be in your care too. So, you guys are Room 10? Iâve heard about you guys from Abel-san. Pleasure working with you.â
It seemed that Abel laid some groundwork after he met them last night.
Abel was good at that kind of attentiveness or behind-the-scenes groundwork despite how he looked.
The four people from Room 10 greeted them politely.
âWeâll be in your care.â
A pleasant greeting was important.
Greetings were the supreme and versatile communication tool because you could establish a friendly relationship with the other party just by greeting them.
The destination of this trading company was Whitnash, the best port city in the Kingdom of Knightley.
It would take two days by wagon in the southwest direction for a one-way trip from the City of Rune.
The escort request was for a round trip, two days to reach the port, nine days stay, and two days for the return trip, for a total of 13 days.
The nine days of stay was considerably longer than that of a normal caravan, and because the total duration of the request was long, the reward became five gold coins per person.
However, during their stay in Whitnash, they were exempted from their escort duties and they could spend their time freely, so it was not so difficult.
It could be said to be fairly good conditions for an escort request for D-rank and E-rank adventurers.
The three people from ăRoom 10ă were able to take up this request because they were lucky, but Ryo slipped into the last vacant slot because it had been a long time since he had fish and he was craving for it.
In the first place, when he was in the Rondo Forest, it was extremely difficult to get saltwater fish.
He almost died in a battle with the Bait Ball ⌠he was shot by a giant snapping shrimp and fainted ⌠he was almost killed by something that looked like a Kraken ⌠those were Ryoâs memories of the sea.
(Huh? Does that mean the last time I ate saltwater fish ⌠was when I was on Earth �)
Ryo turned pale from realization.
While Ryo was in shock, ăCoffee Makerăâs Delong voice was heard.
âRyo, along with Gan and John from my party, will follow behind the last wagon.â
Before he knew it, the escort arrangement was over.
âWell then, letâs set off.â
The first wagon started moving and all the other wagons followed soon after.
That said, the adventurers escorting the wagons were walking and wagons that carry goods were very slow in the first place.
âHey, Ryo, youâre a Magician, right? What attribute do you have?â
âItâs water.â
Before long, Gan from ăCoffee Makerăspoke to Ryo who was situated at the rear.
âWater? Thatâs rare, I donât think there are many Water-Attribute Magicians in the guild either âŚ. John, among the adventurers of Rune, who else uses Water?â
âHm ⌠thereâs no one else? Fire, Wind, Earth ⌠Well, recovery is Light, but ⌠there arenât any Water or Darkness.â
âNo wonder I didnât meet any other Water-Attribute MagiciansâŚâ
When Ryo said so, Gan and John burst into laughter.
âBut Ryo is amazing, and weâre looking forward to seeing you in action because of what Abel-san said yesterday.â
âYeah, you should be deserving of it if that person says so.â
It seemed that he wasnât being ridiculed thanks to Abel.
(Abel is a good guy. Iâll treat you to a meal next time ⌠Ah ⌠I wonder if he has forgotten his promise to treat me to dinner for a week âŚ)
âBy the way, the request this time has us staying for nine days in the city over there, isnât it? Isnât that very long?â
âWhat, havenât you heard? This trading company is going to the City of Whitnash to take part in the port opening festival that is held once every five years. If I recall correctly, the port opening festival will last for seven days, so weâll be staying there for that duration.â
âA festival! That sounds fun!â
âYeah. Since it is only held once every five years, itâs quite a huge festival and there will be many programs so onlookers come from all over the world. This request gives us free time while weâre there and our lodgings would be paid for by the trading company so itâs a perfect request.â
Gan and John were in a good mood.
âAfter all, there is a highway between Rune and Whitnash, and there are guard patrols, so bandits rarely appear. Thatâs why this request is open for D-rank and E-ranks.â
âWe were able to snag such a good request âŚâ
âOh ⌠the 13 days duration is the issue. Almost half a month ⌠many adventurers live in the City of Rune and they rent a place? Paying for half a month without staying there ⌠would be a waste. So, requests that have a long duration arenât popular. Whereas, Ryo and others live in the dormitory so âŚâ
âEven if we leave the City of Rune for a long time, we would not lose money on accommodation.â
âThatâs right.â
The six members of ăCoffee Makeră owned a house so they had no problem picking up an escort request with a long duration.
(Thatâs smart, Coffee Maker ⌠oh yeah.)
âOh right, your party name, Coffee Maker ⌠why did you name it so?â
Yes, coffee maker would refer to those machines that automatically brew coffee on modern Earth.
Whatâs more, the party leaderâs name was ăDelongă ⌠similar to the name of a famous coffee maker in Ryoâs company âŚ
That maker, always brewing delicious coffee, was loved by all the employees, so of course Ryo knew it too.
âOh, leader was insistent on it.â
âYeah. If Iâm not mistaken, leaderâs grandfather was a famous adventurer and his party name at that time was ăCoffee Makeră âŚâ
âHis grandfatherâs name was âŚâ
âDelonga, wasnât it?â
Ryo nodded deeply.
Incidentally, Ryo had not drunk coffee since reincarnating on ăPhiă âŚ
Two days later, the party arrived in the port town of Whitnash without any problems.
The first leg of the first escort mission for ăRoom 10ă was successfully completed.
Please report us if you find any errors so we can fix it asap!