Ch.360[Episode 360] Shepherd John Expedition

The next day, Sir Dominic headed toward the clan building of the Johan Shepherd Expedition as soon as dawn broke.

Normally, clan locations were publicly available, making them quite easy to find.

One might think that making locations public would be dangerous during clan wars, but it was actually safer to disclose them.

If a clan hid its location, other clans might become wary, suspecting they were preparing for clan warfare.

Therefore, clans generally opted to reveal their locations while focusing on strengthening their security.

Of course, there weren’t only disadvantages to clans making their locations public.

People interested in joining could find them using map apps, and it was also more convenient for management purposes.

Sir Dominic walked toward the outskirts of Gachaland.

The Johan Shepherd Expedition’s clan headquarters was located on the outskirts of Gachaland.

And in quite a secluded alley at that.

The alleys were so complex that Sir Dominic had to check his map app more than a dozen times just in this area.

Sir Dominic passed through winding alleys until he arrived at a brick-lined passage.

It looked like the kind of place where a medieval secret society might gather.

Come to think of it, hadn’t the Johan Shepherd Expedition been described as a secret society?

Sir Dominic nodded as he recalled what Brigadier General Joseph had once said.

It seemed that as the clan grew, they had shifted their concept from secret society to fantasy, though their headquarters still maintained the secret society aesthetic.

With such trivial thoughts in mind, Sir Dominic stopped at a dead end.

If the map app was correct, this was where the entrance to the Johan Shepherd Expedition headquarters should be.

Sir Dominic looked around and suddenly noticed something slightly odd.

It was one of the bricks in the wall, with a texture quite different from the others.

In the darkness of the alley, it was something one might easily miss at a glance.

Sir Dominic thought this odd section must be one of the conditions for entering the Johan Shepherd Expedition headquarters.

He knocked on the strange section with the back of his hand.

“…Who is it?”

Bingo.

The odd section of the wall opened, revealing someone’s eyes.

Those eyes were carefully examining Sir Dominic, and he felt as though he had seen them somewhere before.

Sir Dominic silently handed over the letter he had received yesterday through the door.

The person on the other side took the letter and was quiet for a moment, then there was the sound of locks being undone from the other side.

With the creaking sound of rusty hinges, the brick wall opened wide.

“Please come in. Welcome, Sir Dominic.”

The first thing visible as the door opened was the person welcoming Sir Dominic.

He was a rather handsome blond man, and Sir Dominic immediately recognized him.

“…You’re the person I met during yesterday’s raid.”

“Ah, yes.”

The blond man scratched his head awkwardly.

Sir Dominic was somewhat taken aback by the man’s shy and earnest personality, so different from his proud and arrogant demeanor the day before.

The whole situation felt somehow awkward.

“I was, um, acting a bit yesterday. To test you, Sir Dominic.”

“Is that so?”

“Please don’t be angry. To be honest, it wasn’t something I wanted to do…”

The man watched Sir Dominic’s reaction nervously.

No, he wasn’t just watching Sir Dominic’s reaction.

For some reason, the blond swordsman kept glancing behind him.

Sir Dominic followed his gaze and looked behind the blond man.

And there he found the person who was presumably making the blond man so nervous.

It was a large man wearing loose clothes like those worn by priests, with his back turned to Sir Dominic.

And Sir Dominic had recently seen someone with such an appearance.

“Duke Francisco?”

Indeed, it was Priest Francisco.

“…I didn’t expect you to recognize me so quickly.”

Francisco replied to Sir Dominic in a dejected voice, as if he had been confident he wouldn’t be discovered.

Given his size, it would be stranger not to notice him, but until just now, when Sir Dominic followed the blond man’s gaze, he hadn’t been aware of Francisco’s presence. So perhaps Francisco could have remained undetected.

“Why is Duke Francisco here?”

Sir Dominic looked back and forth between the blond man and Francisco with a confused expression.

And he began to rack his brain to understand the current situation.

‘I was, um, acting a bit yesterday. To test you, Sir Dominic.’

‘Please don’t be angry. To be honest, it wasn’t something I wanted to do…’

The blond man said he had acted to test Sir Dominic.

And that acting wasn’t of his own volition.

In other words, someone else had tested Sir Dominic.

And the blond swordsman and Francisco were together?

Sir Dominic completely grasped the situation from there.

“You were the one who tested me?”

Sir Dominic shouted toward Francisco.

Francisco nodded at Sir Dominic’s words.

He revealed everything as if it were nothing.

“I apologize for testing you without asking for your opinion, Sir Dominic. But how should I put it… we just wanted to confirm your abilities.”

“Confirm my abilities?”

“Yes. We wanted to see if you would be a good fit with us, whether our synergy would be good or bad. For the upcoming East-West Competition.”

Sir Dominic nodded at Francisco’s words.

What they were saying was that they wanted to check his skills before hiring him as a mercenary.

“So you’re saying you tested me to hire me?”

“That’s right.”

Francisco stroked his beard and affirmed Sir Dominic’s words.

“I apologize for testing you without permission. But we wanted to know how much synergy we could create without knowing anything beforehand.”

“I understand. I won’t worry about that part anymore, so rest assured.”

“Thank you.”

Sir Dominic agreed with Francisco’s words and declared that he would not pursue the matter any further.

Francisco bowed in respect for Sir Dominic’s generous attitude.

“But I’ve become curious about one thing.”

“What is it?”

Sir Dominic suddenly had a question about Francisco’s words.

“I only decided to go on the raid that day. How were you able to prepare the act so quickly?”

That was a question about their ability to act so promptly.

“Well, it’s nothing special. As you know, there are several famous things in fantasy, aren’t there? Mana, divine power, Sword Masters… and the Thieves’ Guild.”

“Ah.”

Sir Dominic exclaimed in understanding at Francisco’s words.

The Thieves’ Guild dealt in stolen goods and information, so finding out Sir Dominic’s every move would have been no trouble at all.

“Of course, it’s an extremely convenient setting.”

“…Is it okay to call it a ‘setting’?”

“What does it matter? The truth is, we don’t have a Thieves’ Guild. We just have the setting that we get information from the Thieves’ Guild.”

Francisco was being excessively honest with Sir Dominic.

He was thoroughly adhering to the fact that one must be honest when dealing with Sir Dominic.

Though the extent was a bit too much, Francisco steadfastly pushed forward with his honesty.

“To be precise, we receive help from the system with the setting that we get information from the Thieves’ Guild. If you pay the right price, you can buy any information.”

“I see.”

Sir Dominic realized the importance of ‘settings’ here.

The Tanker Union had the setting of being a ‘labor union to improve the rights and interests of tankers,’ so they didn’t have a separate department for managing information.

Instead, they had connections with the Executive branch, as befitting their labor union setting, which was unique to the Tanker Union.

The same was true for the Johan Shepherd Expedition.

They had a fantasy setting, and things that might exist in fantasy could receive support from the system.

Of course, on the premise of paying the right price.

Sir Dominic suddenly became curious about the settings of other clans.

And about the peculiarities those settings might bring.

“By the way, the fact that you’ve come to our Johan Shepherd Expedition like this means you accept our proposal, correct?”

Sir Dominic snapped out of his thoughts at Francisco’s words.

“Half correct.”

“Half correct?”

Francisco tilted his head and stroked his beard at Sir Dominic’s words.

“Either it’s correct or it’s not, what do you mean by half correct?”

Francisco asked, seemingly unable to understand.

“I did come to accept the proposal.”

“I did? Using ‘did’ means…”

Francisco trailed off at Sir Dominic’s words.

It seemed he had some idea of what was coming.

“That’s right.”

However, Sir Dominic spoke firmly, as if not allowing Francisco to finish his thought.

“I want to modify the contract.”

“As I expected.”

Francisco shook his head at Sir Dominic’s words, as if he had anticipated this.

“We haven’t even properly discussed the contract yet. How can you already say you want to change it?”

As Francisco said, Sir Dominic had not yet discussed the terms of the contract with the Johan Shepherd Expedition.

So how could he say he wanted to modify the contract?

“I misspoke. Not a modification, but something I absolutely want you to do for me.”

Francisco understood Sir Dominic’s words.

If that was the case, it was better to mention it in advance.

“What exactly do you want to include in the contract? I’ll grant whatever I can within my authority.”

Francisco said to Sir Dominic.

At those words, Sir Dominic told Francisco his proposal.

“Give me a skin.”

“…?”

At those words, Francisco’s expression became dumbfounded.