The Everyday Life of an Incompetent Crown Prince

21: A Stroll in the Name of Escort

I took a sip of coffee bean tea while listening to the occasional crackling of the campfire. It was surprisingly unpleasant, but it was said to be good for waking you up. I don’t think it’s the effect of the tea, but rather the bitterness and astringency that lingers in my mouth that wakes me up.

I couldn’t help but frown, and Neal laughed out loud.

“hahahaha, it seems that it’s still too early for Jas.”

“Too early? Is there anyone who actually finds this delicious?”

In response to my words, Neal nodded towards Gagel. Gagel was smiling.

I tried looking at the two women.

“I’m used to it.”

“Well, it’s not exactly delicious.”

So it’s not just me who finds it unpleasant. I glared at Neal, and he smiled mischievously again. I doubt I’ll ever drink this again.

By the way, Neal and I are going to take the first watch, followed by Gagel and Cyril. So only Neal and I are drinking. The other two will drink when they wake up.

“But it’s such a hassle to camp out.”

I have to keep watch myself, the food is bad, and we don’t even have a carriage to sleep in this time, so we’re sleeping on the ground. It’s unimaginable compared to my previous life.

“Well, that’s what it’s like to be an adventurer. This is still the easy part. As an explorer, you have to spend days walking through mountains and forests, or explore dungeons in the lower levels. That’s much harder. This time, even though it’s an escort mission, we’re part of a raid, so there are others to watch out for besides ourselves. It’s a piece of cake.”

“What if it rains in this situation?”

“We just have to pray that it doesn’t.”

If it does, I will definitely use [Sun Room] to shelter us from the rain and wind.

As we were chatting, Neil suddenly looked up. When I followed his gaze, I saw Keith, the vice-leader of the ‘Liliano’ guild, walking towards us.

“Hey, can I join you guys?”

“Yeah, sure. We only have coffee though.”

“That’s enough. I’ll have some.”

Keith sat down between Neil and me and poured himself a cup from the mug he had brought with him. He blew on it a few times before taking a sip. Judging from his expressionless face, this must be what normal coffee tastes like. Let me say it again, I will never drink it.

“Hey, let me join too.”

Then, Mash, the vice-captain of the ‘Grieg Mercenary Corps’, approached us. Before I could even wonder what was going on, Mash sat down between me and Keith without hesitation.

He grinned and held out his mug, and Neil poured him some coffee with a wry smile.

What the heck are these guys? Ignoring my question, the three party leaders started talking.

Apparently, they hadn’t come here just to chat, but to have some kind of meeting.

Why had the vice-leaders of the guild come to the smallest party here?

I pretended not to be interested and listened half-heartedly, but the conversation soon turned to the exchange of information about the current state of affairs.

“Keith, how are things lately? The west is getting active, so the flow of goods is a mess.”

“I’m not happy about it. Thanks to that, solo adventurers, partners, and even parties based in Garland are flowing over there, and we’re getting all sorts of miscellaneous requests.”

“It’s the same for us. The demand for materials has increased, but we don’t have the manpower to handle it. Well, my boss is over there too, so I can’t really say anything.”

Judging from the information I knew and the content of the conversation, the fortress city of Garland seemed to be home to a considerable number of adventurers, mercenaries, and city soldiers due to its size and the flow of goods. It was said that there was a lot of gathering, patrolling the roads, and exterminating monsters at the foot of the forests and mountains.

Of course, there were also many chores to be done in the city, which were usually handled by solo adventurers or low-ranking adventurers. But now, they were probably flowing to the west, where there were more opportunities to earn money, or rather , where the war was taking place.

The guilds were the ones who were affected by this. Unlike solo adventurers, they had bases and generally didn’t move from them. There were some guilds that occasionally moved from city to city or didn’t have any bases at all, but they were a minority.

Because they had bases, they were given requests that overflowed from the brokerage offices. And basically, the guilds couldn’t refuse them. They could refuse, but it would affect the guild’s own credit rating.

As armed groups recognized by the country, it was only natural that they should fulfill the requests given to them, unless they were extremely unreasonable.

I see, that’s why these two vice-leaders of the guild were making such sour faces.

Thinking about it that way, Neil and his group, who usually operated as a party, had it easy, even though they had their drawbacks.

No, maybe they weren’t affiliated with the guild in order to make the most of that advantage.

Well, in the end, both have their pros and cons.

As I continued to struggle to drink the incredibly bitter coffee, the topic somehow turned to me.

“Speaking of which, I haven’t celebrated you yet. I’m Keith, the vice-leader of ‘Liliano’. Nice to meet you.”

“Oh, right. I’m Mash, the vice-captain of the ‘Grieg Mercenary Corps’. Nice to meet you.”

The two of them extended their hands to me, so I introduced myself and shook their hands.

“Neil, your party was supposed to be fixed at four, but did you add a new member?”

“No. I just met this guy the other day, but he’s good, and he happened to be free this time, so I invited him.”

“Oh, when did you meet him?”

“It’s not even been two weeks.”

I thought he was being awfully honest, but I could kind of understand what these two were thinking.

“Oh, and you invited him despite that? As expected of someone with a credit rating of 4.”

“hahahaha, well, I can trust him personally.”

“I see. Then I’ll invite him too.”

I haven’t told anyone my credit rating yet. But Mash had no hesitation in saying that my credit rating was 4, and neither Neil nor Keith said anything about it.

That means they must have looked it up somewhere, or they guessed it from the fact that I was with the big merchant, Jarnall.

Thinking about it that way, it made sense why two vice-leaders of the guild had come here.

“Jasper, where were you active before?”

“No, this is my first time registering in Garland. I was in the west before this.”

“Wow, that’s quite a place you came from, in more ways than one.”

He said it in a suggestive way, but in truth, the royal capital is southwest from here. Simply put, if you go west, there’s a duchy governed by my father’s younger brother, my uncle. There are still many undeveloped areas there, and there are various small towns and pioneer villages. Well, I’m not lying.

After exchanging similar words with him as I did with Neil before, it must have been getting late, and the two of them stood up, ready to go.

“Oh, right, if you don’t mind, please take this.”

“Oh, me too. If you’re okay with it, please come visit us anytime.”

The two of them handed me the name of their alliance (guild name) and a silver adventurer’s certificate (adbel card) with their names engraved on it. It looked similar to the one I received from Jarnal.

After the two of them left, I looked at the two cards several times and asked Neil.

“What’s this?”

“It’s an adventurer’s duplicate certificate (adbel copy card). There are brown, silver, and gold, and brown is just a greeting. Silver is something you give to someone you’re close to. Gold is a testament to absolute affection and trust .

Well, officially, it’s to prove that you’re an acquaintance of theirs. If you have that, it’s proof that you’re on good terms with those two. There are various ways to use it, but the best thing is that you won ‘t be bothered when you go to their alliance base (guild house), and you’ll be welcomed with good treatment.”

“So what’s the hidden meaning?”

“It means they’d be happy if you joined our alliance. That’s probably what they were after from the beginning. Otherwise, they wouldn’t normally give you silver right away. The fact that you got it from the two vice-leaders of the alliance means that Jas is more well-known among adventurers than you think.”

Ignoring Neil, who was patting me on the shoulder and saying, “That’s great,” I pretended to put it in my pocket and put it in my [Colorless Jewels]. I don’t know if I’ll use it or not, but I’ll keep it for now.

*

I’m sleepy. That’s how lethargic I feel in my head.

To be exact, my head and body are awake, but I feel a mental drowsiness deep inside.

Is it because this is the first time I’ve ever slept outdoors, or is it because this is the first time I’ve slept anywhere else than in a bed? I swore to myself that I would never sleep outdoors again.

“What’s wrong, Jas? You’re not talking.”

“I’m sleepy. I’ll never do an escort with camping again.”

“You’re in a bad mood for no reason…”

I feel like it’s just the adventurers’ rough speech rubbing off on me.

The rest of the way went smoothly, although there were two attacks.

Once by a magical beast, and once by a group of bandits.

The magical beast attacked us in a place sandwiched between the grassland on the left and the forest on the right.

Four carnivorous magical beasts that looked like cats called omnivorous cats attacked us simultaneously from the left and right as if they had been. We were targeted because we had fewer people on the side, so it took us a little while to respond, and two of us were slightly injured. It’s not that those two were weak, but it was because they were protecting the carriage and the driver.

By the way, I, who was in a bad mood, kicked the one that was the main culprit for messing up our schedule with all my might. I misjudged my strength and blew its head off, and when I saw the other groups that were Taking the proof of subjugation later, I felt a little sorry.

The bandits shot arrows from the top of a slope that was like a small cliff, and attacked from behind at the same time. They were probably trying to steal the luggage in the back while the guards in front and on the sides were dealing with them .

I was in a bad mood because I was sleepy, I was being looked down on, and my schedule was being messed up again, so I charged at the ten or so of them who were attacking from behind on horseback, and cut them all down without even waiting for Neil and the other four to support me.

The ones who were attacking from the top of the slope somehow managed to escape.

And so, I collected the adventurer’s certificates that the ones I cut down had for some reason, and we proceeded to the town, arriving just before nightfall as originally planned.

The most important thing I learned from this escort request was that magical beasts and bandits who get in the way of my progress should be killed without mercy.