"That covers the paperwork. Registration fee is five silver."
The clerk dropped the coins in her drawer and pulled a folded flag and an iron badge from the cabinet behind her.
"Standard Guild-issue flag and badge. Lose either, replacement's a silver coin. You're welcome to commission your own design later, but the base color has to stay black."
"New corps start at Black Iron. Advancing requires completing enough quests at the right difficulty, rules are posted on the wall if you want specifics."
She slid the items across.
"Thanks." Gareth took the flag and badge and stuffed them straight into Nicole's pack.
"We're official!" Nicole clapped, practically bouncing. "As of today, we're a real mercenary corps!"
"Black Iron, though," Gareth added.
"Still counts!" She waved that off. "Give it time, we'll hit Bronze, Silver, Gold. Before long the whole Oster Kingdom's going to know the name Bedrock Vanguard."
"Slow down, dreamer." He couldn't help but be amused. Climbing corps ranks wasn't nearly that simple, Gold-tier alone usually meant a Tier-5 or multiple Tier-4 fighters anchoring the roster, and Northwind City hadn't produced a corps that strong in its entire history. Strength wasn't even the whole equation either, plenty of manpower grinding quests mattered just as much.
Luna stood off to the side, quiet, working something over in her head.
To most people, a Black Iron corps meant nothing, the lowest rung, the kind anyone could buy into for a handful of silver. Northwind alone probably had close to a thousand of them.
But she was looking at the actual composition. Their leader: eighteen, already a Tier-3 Grand Knight, 1-Star, with talent good enough that Tier-6 wasn't out of the question someday. Herself: nineteen, Tier-2, 8th Circle, with a real shot at Tier-5 mage eventually. And Nicole, weaker in raw talent, but disciplined enough that steady training and the right potions could still carry her into mid Tier-3 territory.
Melee, ranged, and a bit of a scout in Nicole. On paper, that was already a workable foundation.
If she let herself think that far ahead, Purple-Gold wasn't an unreasonable target.
"What's on your mind?" Gareth's voice cut back in.
She blinked, realizing he'd caught her staring off. "Nothing. Just thinking about our first quest."
"Something simple, get a feel for working together." He glanced toward the quest board. "E-rank sounds about right. Any ideas?"
Nicole's hand shot up. "I've got one, clearing Cave Spiders out of the abandoned mine west of the city. Two gold reward. Wanted to take it before, but not solo."
"Smart of you not to," Luna said, flat.
Cave Spiders barely counted as a threat individually, rarely even Tier-2, let alone Tier-3. The problem was volume, a nest could easily run fifty strong.
Nicole pouted but didn't argue the point.
Gareth thought it over. "Alright, we'll take it. Heard of Cave Spiders before, shouldn't take long if the mine isn't too deep. But we wait until Luna's healed up first."
"I can fight," Luna said, glancing at him. "Shoulder's another two days out. Leg's already fine to move on."
"This isn't something to joke about." He almost said no outright, then reconsidered given who he was talking to. "You're sure?"
She looked at him and something close to a smile crossed her face. "Isn't that what you're here for?"
"I'll take the compliment." He recovered, walked over to the board, and pulled the green quest tag down to register it.
The clerk processed it and handed back the form.
"E-rank: clear the Cave Spiders from the abandoned mine west of the city. Three-day limit. Turn in spider fangs for the bounty, we buy at market rate."
"Efficient operation you've got here," Gareth said, folding the form and passing it to Nicole.
"Let's move. We'll pick up fluorite torches and spider-venom antidote on the way out."
Nicole practically skipped after him.
"Bedrock..." Luna murmured the name to herself, walking a few steps behind, a small smile tugging at her mouth. She quickened her pace to catch up.
On their way out through the West Gate, Gareth spotted a familiar face.
Four freight wagons sat parked along the road, piled high with bags, bundles, even bed frames, like someone was clearing out an entire household in one go. A man on horseback barked orders at the drivers, glancing over his shoulder every few seconds like he expected to be followed.
Collins.
The same man who'd abandoned Luna outside Deadwood Forest and ridden off alone.
Collins spotted them too. His eyes caught on Gareth for half a second, then landed on Luna, guilt and something close to panic flickering across his face. His mouth opened like he meant to say something, then thought better of it, and he turned back to the wagons instead.
"Move it," he snapped at the drivers, voice tight.
The convoy rolled out west and didn't look back.
Gareth watched them go, understanding settling in without much effort. Mercenary work ran on two currencies, strength and reputation. Strength kept you fed. Reputation kept you employed. Running to save your own skin was something everyone quietly accepted as possible, but never something you admitted to out loud, not if you wanted to work again. Once word got around, no crew would touch you and no client would trust you with a job.
Collins wasn't sticking around to find out how far that word would travel. New town, probably a new name, starting over from nothing.
Gareth let out a short, humorless laugh and looked away.
"You good?" he asked Luna quietly, and without really thinking about it, reached over and took her hand.
Her fingers were cool, slim, the kind of grip that felt like smooth stone warmed just slightly by contact.
"Not my business what he does," she said, tone even, like she was commenting on the weather. She tried to pull her hand back and couldn't.
He wasn't holding too hard, just enough that she couldn't easily shake loose without actually making an issue of it.
She tried once more. Same result.
Something unfamiliar stirred in her chest, not quite embarrassment, not quite irritation, something warmer that spread up from her hand into her wrist and settled somewhere in her chest.
Her face warmed slightly.
Fine. He'd saved her life. She could allow him this much.
She stopped resisting, kept her eyes forward, expression carefully neutral.
But Gareth caught it anyway, the faint color creeping up the edge of her ear.
He smiled to himself.
First target, very nearly secured.