Chapter 31: Chapter 31 - Another Reason For The Journey

In today’s session I’m going to start telling you about the adventure Julia and I were planning.

Obviously since I had the fantastic new business idea, we had to go and do some research.

Actually the research I’m talking about was simply to go and convince Julia’s sister to move her shop to Lofie village.

Which I didn’t exactly share with Julia when this entire thing started.

I mean I didn’t really know how it would go, since she said that her relationship with said sister is complicated.

I also didn’t want to press Julia for any specifics on said relationship.

So I just thought, "Fuck it, I’ll just wing it."

Which honestly is the only way most things ever get done. 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝐰𝚎𝕓𝐧𝚘𝘃𝗲𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝕞

Oh come on, don’t tell me that you do anything any differently.

And honestly, I figured that my natural charm and charisma would work just as well on Julia’s sister as it did on her.

Maybe not in the same way... or maybe I did hope it would work in the same way.

None of you have the right to judge me for that, we all know that most of you would have hoped for the same if you were in my shoes.

I mean if she was anything close to as beautiful as Julia, it would be the jackpot.

And Julia basically gave me the green light anyway.

You know with that entire speech about knowing I would get someone else.

At that time I thought she meant that I would leave her for someone else, which obviously would never happen.

But after some more research I found out that she actually meant polygamy.

As in a harem.

All of my fantasy world dreams actually came true when I heard that.

Calm down honey!

Ouch!

Okay I’m sorry.

You know I love all of you!

Okay before I get beaten to hell even more let’s get into today’s part of the story.

***

I started planning our trip as soon as Julia and I got back to the inn from our bath.

I had a lot of things to do before we could get our trip underway.

Among which, and probably the most important, was to tell Darvel that he would need to find a substitute for the bar while I was gone.

I had already given John all the necessary instructions to be able to handle the bathhouse on his own, so I wasn’t all that worried about it.

But the bar...

Well the bar would be a lot less interesting without me there now wouldn’t it?

So I just hoped that Darvel could find someone to tend it without ruining the vibe.

And with me being a person who believes in speed above all else when it came to business, I had obviously decided that we should leave within two days.

"How long would the journey take?" I asked Julia as we came down from the room for my shift at the bar.

"If we take the road, it should take about a week." Julia answered.

"Is there any other way than to take the road?"

Yes, yes, I know it was a stupid question, we’ll be walking, so basically we could take any path we wanted to.

"Yes, we can cut through Booksfield the same way we came here."

"And how much time would that save us?"

"If we keep a good pace, it should halve the time."

We reached the bar when she said that, but I had another destination in mind at that time.

"And obviously that comes with some risks?"

We walked through the bar, then through the diner, and found the hallway at the back that would lead to Darvel’s office.

"Obviously." Julia answered, not explaining any of the risks that it would so obviously hold.

I waited.

And waited.

We had almost reached Darvel’s office when I finally gave in and just asked her what those risks would be.

"Well, as you have experienced beasts would be among them, then there are bandits, brigands, and military deserters."

This list actually made me stop in my tracks.

"Did you say deserters?" I asked, obviously you thought the list stopped me because of it’s extensiveness, but you would be completely wrong.

It was that last item on the list that had my interest piqued.

"Don’t even think about it." Julia said.

"Why, what could you possibly mean?"

"I know that look you have, you can’t turn military deserters into your own personal mercenary force." She answered.

I was absolutely shocked.

I mean how could she have possibly figured out that I wanted to do that.

This is a fantasy world after all.

Somewhere there should be wars that could use some mercenaries.

It was yet another untapped goldmine.

"Oh come on, why not?"

"Because you can’t trust deserters, why not just build a mercenary group from people you can trust, and train yourself?"

"Obviously I won’t just accept any old deserter, I’ll make sure they had the proper reasons for deserting." I answered.

Julia looked at me with an astonished expression.

It must have been because my idea seemed flawless to her.

"Are you an idiot?"

Maybe not.

"What would be a good reason to desert?"

And this was where I made her understand my thinking.

"Maybe their kingdom made them do something they didn’t want to do. You know something that went against their moral codes." I answered, my logic was perfectly sound.

"Moral codes? If you join the military, you give your loyalty to the kingdom, and the kingdom guides your moral code from that day on. Deserting that post is a crime deserving of death." Julia answered in all seriousness.

That seemed a bit... wrong to me.

I mean sure, you can’t just decide to up and flake on your responsibilities, but to kill people because they didn’t agree with what you wanted them to do?

"I think that’s a bit extreme." I muttered, moving toward Darvel’s door again.

"It is not, if you want to start a mercenary company of your own, just tell me and I’ll gather and train people myself."

This actually seemed like a good idea, I mean my training with her went extremely well, if she could do that with a couple of people we could have a very good thing going in a short amount of time.

And with the village planning on hiring guards soon anyway, I might even be able to get the contract for that job.

Which meant that our little journey just had two goals, both would make a massive difference in my business portfolio.

By the time I burst through Darvel’s door I was wearing a sly smile.

Which quickly turned to shock when the scene on the other side of the door registered.