A/N: Thank you Lotuslin for the castle~! *HUGS* As always, if you hve any request, just tell me! xoxoxoxooxoxooo

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Finn smiled at them.

Indeed, sometimes it was the serendipitous meetings that created the most meaningful friendships and relationships. Somehow, Syl's face came to mind, and his smile grew warm.

Then a certain awkward topic was raised all of a sudden.

"Well, that precious team is being threatened right now thanks to someone coveting other people's teammates!" Marcus said, all while biting on delicious meat. "Finn! Answer for your crimes!"

He might look idiotic with some food at the side of his mouth right now, but it was a pretty important topic and the girls also found themselves looking at him, waiting for his answer.

Finn cleared his throat. "It's up to him what he decides. If he really doesn't want to stay here, I won't force him," he said, sounding mature and reliable. He might have mentioned it before but since he was going strong, Marcus really didn't believe it.

"Really?"

"Of course," Finn said, crossing his arms, looking slightly offended. "What kind of person do you think I am?"

"Hmn. A seductive one."

"..." Er, thank you?

Finn rubbed his temple, pulling the topic back to the right path. "Didn't you say at least five members were required?"

"Ah yeah, we actually got more than the minimum as we had another two people as teammates. They were from a different place, farther from the danger zone like Leiah and Durgan were. It just so happened they were visiting the borders and decided to take a mission in the meantime."

"They are twins. The male is a cleric with good healing skills, but he has a fixed smile on his face that sometimes becomes especially scary when people are being annoying," he said. "But he's a good bloke."

"His twin sister, on the other hand, is a mage. She's quite volatile and powerful. She kinda scares me sometimes. However, the most important thing was that she has really big bo—Ow!"

Teary, he sent a pitiful stare in Nona's direction, who was giving him a look.

Durgan chuckled, eating a few more bites of the delicious pork. "That was three years ago, and, while the twins had gone back to their area, the rest of us had been doing missions together ever since. We're usually teamed up with others though, due to our numbers."

At this, Marcus couldn't help but frown and look pitifully at Durgal again.

"..."

Finn cleared his throat, afraid that Marcus would swing Durgal out of the deal he was obviously about to close.

He might have said such gracious words before, but he wouldn't bother making such a big feast if he didn't have an agenda!

"That mission with that guy you called feces… what rank was that?" he asked, wondering about the danger. They had given him an overview before, but now that they were friends, he felt he could get more details.

Sure enough, it made them passionately distracted.

"His mission was only Class C," he said. It was a call for 15, actually, which was at least three teams.

"Class C missions are generally for toughened-level fighters only, which should've been just right for us. They usually involve subjugation of bandits in the safe zones or monster culling in areas around level 2 or the border of level 1 and 2.

"On the other hand, Class B missions—which require Fortified-level and above—are generally extremely expensive to start, so most employers would tag their missions Class C to save money, even if the danger level could be comparable to B. That is what happened to us."

That mission had two stronger adventurer teams, and they had mostly upper-toughened fighters and resonant-level mages, and even a few fortified-level people, so the overall force should've been okay. Their goal was just at the border of Level 1 and 2, after all, and in theory, there shouldn't have been such a big accident.

Basically, their traniel adventurer group was just there to fill the numbers, and they were in the rear areas, which was partly how they escaped the initial explosion of monsters.

They shivered at the memory. "We only survived because Leiah had a few protection charms on her." Charms, also known as runes. It was something he was really curious about.

Runes were not extremely rare, but they weren't too common either, particularly among nobles. There were also certain types that were very much prized and, to save her team, she had to use some.

Frago a.k.a. Feces had happened to have seen some of the runes she kept while stalking her. It made Feces fall in love with Leiah even deeper, resorting to quite a few things that made Leiah uncomfortable.

Anyway, the mere mention of the embodiment of defecation made the mood sour a bit, barely neutralized by the delicious food.

Finn's lips twitched, shifting the topic. "Can you tell me more about the Adventurer Guild?"

They looked at him, interested in their line of work, and they couldn't help but feel proud.

As always, it was Marcus' mouth that could not be stopped. "There are many advantages, namely: access to official contacts, missions, and quests. Official ones generally paid a lot better than random quests, whose client might run away. Going through the guild would protect both parties, basically."

They would also get good discounts to guild-affiliated inns, shops, and so on. One had to know that guilds were very powerful, and they tended to match the power of nobles if not the royal families.

After all, unlike the royal families whose influence was limited to the Capital City and some areas nearby, the Guilds spread throughout the entire world. Whether they were in the human area, the elven area, or the beastkin area—the guilds would be there.

Of course, in terms of status, the Guilds still had to answer to the high nobles and the royal family, but they—as an organization, anyway—certainly were on top of the food chain along with the other major guilds.

Being a member of a guild was equivalent to having that as backing, and it would make lower nobles think twice before messing with its members.

Finn blinked. Protection.

Wasn't that what his Inn needed?

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