Arrival in the Trading City of Vardmoi
There was a bit of a commotion at the start, but other than that, the journey was smooth.
The magic bus easily ran through even slightly rough roads, and the occasional attacking monsters were quickly defeated by the adventurer sisters hired as guards.
When I talked to them during breaks, they told me that they were Red-ranked adventurers who mainly worked as guards for buses and merchants.
It seems that when adventurers reach the upper ranks of Blue or Red, guarding jobs become more profitable than monster hunting.
Rather than spending every day hunting monsters and worrying about equipment wear and tear, it’s easier to control equipment wear and tear by accepting guard jobs and only fighting when necessary.
Of course, they check in advance to see if there are any powerful monsters or large-scale bandit groups en route, and they also have to build a relationship of trust with the people they are guarding.
The hard parts changed, but still, the sisters chose the path of mainly guarding.
The adventurers who were guarding us this time were a party of four female adventurers called “The Scarlet Oath”.
They seemed to have some kind of exclusive contract with the long-distance bus operating company, and they travel around the country while guarding buses centered around Vardmoi.
Listening to their stories, they told me about various topics such as which town has what kind of industry developed and what is delicious.
And, as I thought, when dealing with cloth in the country, Vardmoi is the best choice.
If you have connections to sell to individual stores in the Royal Capital, that’s great too, but I don’t have that.
In that case, Vardmoi seems to be higher on average because it also includes exports to other countries.
It seems that the Trade Guild’s information was accurate after all.
When I asked other bus passengers, they also told me that Vardmoi is the best place to deal with cloth.
It seems that they had somehow guessed that I was a cloth merchant because of my companion, Talat.
However, perhaps because long-distance buses are an expensive means of transportation, all the other passengers except me were middle-aged men and women and elderly people.
So their way of dealing with me was like dealing with a child or grandchild.
I mean, that’s fine in its own way, but I couldn’t make any close friends.
The leisurely bus journey came to an end, and we arrived in Vardmoi.
There was a simple entry inspection in Vardmoi, but they let us through fairly easily. Apparently, they use a magic tool invented by an ancient sage to check that no prohibited items are brought in.
I wonder what kind of magic tool that is.
The bus passengers scattered to their respective destinations as they got off the bus.
As for me, I have to decide where to stay tonight.
The quickest way to do that would be to ask at the Tamers’ Guild.
So I took advantage of “The Scarlet Oath” who were going to report their request completion and tagged along to the Adventurers’ Guild.
They had become good friends with me, so they didn’t find it bothersome to this little request of mine.
The Adventurers’ Guild in Vardmoi was five stories tall.
The Tamers’ Guild was located on the second floor.
I parted ways with “The Scarlet Oath” at the entrance and headed for the Tamers’ Guild reception.
“Welcome to the Tamers’ Guild. What can we do for you today?”
“Umm, I just arrived in Vardmoi today, and I was wondering if you could recommend a place where I can stay with my familiar?”
“A place where you can stay with your familiar? There are many depending on your budget, but how much would you like to spend per day?”
Budget… In Neist I was using about 1,000 rubies per day, so let’s go for something similar. Cheap lodgings are scary.
“Err, including food expenses, I’d like to keep it around 1,000 rubies per day if possible.”
“1,000 rubies per day? That’s quite a lot of money, are you sure?”
“Yes. I might look like this, but I earn quite a bit of money.”
“I see. In that case, I recommend a lodging called ‘The Night Lion’. It costs 850 rubies per night including two meals and food for your familiar.”
850 rubies including meals for both of us.
That sounds like a pretty good inn.
“Then let’s go there. Where is it located?”
“It’s at the…”
I was told the location of the inn by the receptionist sister and headed for my destination.
This inn was also well cleaned and had a lot of freshness around it.
Let’s just stay here for one night and see what kind of inn it is.
If it’s a good inn, we can use it as our base for our activities.