## Chapter 19 – Escorting the Merchant Guild
I kept a close watch on Jairo, ready to draw my sword at a moment’s notice.
There had to be a reason why he kept bothering me when I clearly didn’t want him around. And it wasn’t a good one. In the adventurer world, once you’re seen as weak, you’re done for. Especially a darkie like me, who stood out because of his appearance. Once I got marked as an easy target, I’d be screwed.
In fact, there was a high chance this guy was approaching me because he saw my appearance and thought he could take advantage of me.
“Piss off, you bastard.”
“Please, don’t say that…”
I’d never met a religious nutjob who was all there.
If that was the case in Korea, how much worse would it be in this world? The fact that he approached me so suddenly while I was working suggested he was either a fanatic eager to proselytize or had some kind of criminal motive disguised as religion.
Suspicion is a virtue for adventurers. This Jairo guy was a clear-cut phony.
“Have you perhaps experienced discrimination?”
“What the hell are you talking about?”
“You must be from Mirkesha, judging by your black hair and eyes.”
Mirkesha referred to the nomadic barbarians from the outskirts.
Commonly called barbarians, they were characterized by their black hair and eyes. Since I happened to look exactly like that, I just went along with it and lived my life. For the record, there was a certain amount of discrimination.
But what the hell did that have to do with anything?
Judging by the sudden talk about discrimination, I had a feeling I knew what kind of nonsense he was going to spout.
“So what?”
“If you join our Cheondo Society, you can be saved even if you’re a cursed race. Our god values all humans and all living beings with intelligence equally…”
“What? Cursed? What the hell are you babbling about?”
Jairo said that with a refreshing smile. It was pure, as if he truly believed he was making a great offer for my sake.
Being able to smile like that after suddenly dropping the “cursed” bomb on someone meant that this guy was definitely crazy, to the point where even the average psycho wouldn’t dare to compare. My anger surged in an instant from the unexpected provocation.
My voice naturally rose.
“Listen here, you son of a bitch, you’re picking a fight with me over my hair color.”
“Our Cheondo Society doesn’t discriminate based on race or origin…”
“You’re dead.”
“That’s not what I meant.”
Unable to endure any longer, I drew my sword.
Since ancient times, a beating was the best medicine for crazy bastards. Now that things had come to this, I had to see it through. If I tolerated the insult, I’d be an easy target. Except for Winia, of course.
Anyway, if I tolerated an insult from someone who was clearly smaller and weaker than me, someone I could definitely beat, I would definitely regret it later.
“The hell you didn’t.”
The atmosphere turned hostile, and Jairo flinched. He didn’t even seem to realize he had provoked me. It would do him good to taste the bitterness of the world. I’d beat him up and take everything he had.
Consider it tuition.
“Hey! What are you doing!”
As I drew my sword and took a stance, a man from the merchant guild shouted and approached. Judging by the look on his face, he was furious.
Though, he might just have a naturally twisted face, but making fun of someone’s appearance is bad. Well, if the escorts I hired started fighting each other, I wouldn’t be able to forgive them either. He shouted in anger.
“If you’re going to cause trouble, go back right now!”
“No, that’s not it.”
“Weren’t you about to fight just now!”
“Huh? Fight? What are you talking about? I was just asking him to check my stance.”
“Check your stance?”
“Isn’t it good for adventurers to share their skills? This guy seems to know a thing or two about swords.”
I grinned and responded to the man. Since he was coming from over there, he probably hadn’t heard our conversation and had only seen me draw my sword.
After I talked my way out of it, the man turned around as if he understood. Thankfully, Jairo knew his place and shut up.
“Alright, let’s get going! Break’s over! Everyone, get up!”
With that signal, the break was over. I glared at Jairo once more before putting my sword back in its sheath. He returned to his spot, as if he wasn’t giving up.
“I’ll come again next time.”
“Crazy.”
What kind of bad luck was this?
Why do I only get involved with weirdos?
After that, nothing much happened. Since it was still the first day of the journey, the road was well-maintained, and there were no battles to speak of. So, my feet were comfortable, and my mind was at ease.
Occasionally, small wild monsters would suddenly appear, but they were usually scared off by the group of humans and ran away.
There were no wild animals in this world. You couldn’t find any kind rabbits, raccoons, or wild boars, no matter how hard you looked. Instead of wild animals, monsters filled that role. It might just be that they called “animals” “monsters,” but I’d never seen a normal animal here.
Even the horses pulling the carriages in front of me looked subtly different from the horses on Earth. I was just calling them “horses” for convenience. In the first place, I could hear them being called horses. It felt like tamed monsters… or something.
Even livestock were considered monsters, at least for now.
Anyway, today’s job was just walking. Despite the title of escort duty, the day was spent walking all morning and walking all afternoon. The daily wage was 10 coppers. Considering that a day’s worth of cheap, dried rations cost about 1 copper, I could earn 9 coppers just by walking.
Excessive walking was a major cause of knee problems, but what could I do when I was in dire straits? I had to make a living by doing things like this.
I chewed on the dried rations as I walked. This unknown preserved food, “dried rations,” was hard and salty, and while it could fill you up, it also filled you with the fear that your stomach would be ruined. It was a staple food for the poor, along with the inn’s soup.
An extreme taste that shortened your lifespan. Still, poor people had to eat this to survive. It seemed to have all the necessary nutrients.
“We’ll set up camp here.”
As the sun set, the middle-aged man in the green hat from earlier said that, judging that we couldn’t go any further.
The carriages stopped, and the drivers and employees of the merchant guild quickly began preparing the campsite. They lit a bonfire and were really busy preparing the camp.
The adventurers, well, they just gathered together, lit a fire, and prepared for a group sleepover.
“We need to set up a night watch, so the adventurers should come this way.”
Ah, damn it, I forgot about that.
At those words, the adventurers sighed and reluctantly approached the carriages.
Since there might be an attack at night, the night watch was a necessary measure to protect their lives. They looked very dissatisfied with the fact that they were losing sleep, but they all seemed to understand its importance, so they didn’t really complain.
It was in the contract in the first place. If they refused the night watch, they wouldn’t get paid. If it weren’t for this, it would be a pretty good job, damn it.
“Let’s see, five teams should be enough for the night watch. Each team will have an employee of the merchant guild as the leader, and two adventurers as members. We only need to pick five out of ten people.”
Only five out of ten? That meant there was a 50% chance of getting a good night’s sleep. Everyone seemed to be thinking the same thing as me, looking around at each other with the peculiar expressions of foolish people facing a major gamble in their lives.
“Of course, tomorrow we’ll put in the people who didn’t do the night watch today.”
“Tch.”
Well, that’s how it would end up anyway.
But it was like the monkey’s bargain, where getting three acorns in the morning and four in the evening was definitely better. Similarly, it was common sense to rest today and do the tiring night watch from tomorrow. That’s just human nature.
I didn’t think I could do the night watch today, no matter what. I had to postpone it until tomorrow, no matter what. It was usually more beneficial to postpone things like this.
“First, let me ask. Who wants to go first today?”
I lowered my voice as much as possible to create an intimidating atmosphere.
Please, someone volunteer. I’m so tired today, I just want to sleep and do the night watch tomorrow. I tensed up and looked around, and surprisingly, two people raised their hands. A brown-haired man in a martial arts uniform, probably a martial artist, and a bearded man with a double-bladed axe on his back.
“If we’re going to do it anyway, it’s better to do it first.”
“I agree.”
Hearing those words almost made me scoff.
I laughed at them inwardly.
They seemed to be clueless, but if someone died, dropped out, or disappeared tomorrow, they would regret volunteering for the night watch so deeply that they would cry. If there were fewer people, those who had already done it would have to do it again.
Unforeseen events could happen at any time, so it was always better to do things later. And two more idiots were moved by those words, so we only needed to pick one more person.
One out of six.
A deathmatch for their lives.
Rock-paper-scissors would be perfect for this, but unfortunately, these guys all did rock-paper-scissors however they pleased, so it was impossible.
We knew it as a fist for rock, a scissor shape for scissors, and an open hand for paper, but these guys used all sorts of bizarre hand shapes that you couldn’t even call rock-paper-scissors.
When I found out that the middle finger was rock, I was so shocked that I almost fainted. Moreover, the rules were different depending on the region and hometown, so one day, four people simultaneously made different hand shapes that were all rock.
“How do we decide? We don’t have the means to draw lots.”
“Let’s have the person who brought it up do it.”
“Good idea.”
“Who was the one who spouted that nonsense?”
“It was me.”
“Don’t fight.”
“Calm down.”
“Then it would be good for you to do it.”
“How about you do it, since you’re saying that?”
“Everyone, be quiet for now.”
As expected of adventurers, a profession with a high percentage of losers, the atmosphere was already starting to turn hostile.
Just because they didn’t want to do the night watch first, these grown adults were fully prepared to use violence if necessary. This was truly the realm of hungry ghosts. That’s why education is important. Jairo was among them, but he just stood there silently with his mouth shut.
This son of a bitch was caught red-handed.
He picked a fight with me earlier and now he’s just standing there?
“Hey, you do it.”
So, I said it to him directly.
“…”
He heard my words and stared at my face. A guy who talked about some god was the first to back down at a time like this. He had no conscience at all.
“Alright.”
Jairo, who surprisingly agreed, turned to the four volunteers. The other adventurers, who could now get a good night’s sleep, looked at me with eyes that seemed to be looking at something amazing. This was the savage’s swag, oh yeah.
“But you have to listen to my story tomorrow.”
“You son of a bitch.”
Now that the five people for the night watch had been decided, all that was left was to crash. Find a place to sleep, level it out, pick up some weeds to lay down, and then just lie down and sleep.
That’s what sleep is like for an adventurer. Anyway, I had a warm quilted armor and a new cloak. This was pretty good.
Compared to when I first fell into this world and was sleeping in the back alleys of the city, this situation felt like a bed. Back then, I was fighting for survival itself, so compared to then, this was just paradise.
I looked up at the sky and saw that the stars were incredibly bright. Maybe it was because there was no pollution, but the stars were shining like crazy. Above all, there were three moons, so it was almost blinding. One big moon and two small satellite moons, one green and one purple.
This was another world. The sight of it, so detached from reality, was so frustrating that I couldn’t stand it, so I turned over and went to sleep.
Living in this world really sucks.
I don’t want to sleep outside…
