Chapter 125 - What is a Leader?

The choice was too important for Gren to make it on his own. If the travelers didn't mind the guy going with them without any treatment or inspection from Gren then he would put aside his fears and give them the food that he promised them. There was always a chance that the disease would spread but Gren was able to travel quickly and communication with Adierton was possible through the Church. Even if something did happen to the people he cared about, he could still make it in time to save them.

The travelers and their wagons were on the road next to the clearing that Gren parked the truck at. Walking back and forth between the truck and the area around the stubborn man's wagon was getting him some weird looks but it was better than shouting or having a potentially infected person near uninfected people. Then again, maybe it was his suit's fault that he was getting stared at. Even Gren felt that it looked stupid but the it offered the highest level of protection so he didn't regret putting it on. That didn't mean that he wasn't regretting something; on the contrary, Gren was currently regretting that he didn't explain why he needed to wear the suit. If they knew how useful it was then perhaps they would stop talking about how his helmet was shaped like a barrel as he approached them. It really was shaped like a barrel but Gren didn't want to be reminded of it.

"Sorry to bother you all but can I have a moment of your time?" Gren made sure that everybody was paying attention to him before continuing. "I've checked every person and wagon besides that man and his property. He doesn't seem willing to let me inspect his stuff but we're on a tight schedule and need to leave."

"Does this mean that you're not going to be giving us food?" One of the women from the second wagon was worried. The two kids next to her shared some of her features so there was a good chance that she was their mother.

"No. I'm still going to give everybody food." There was a noticeable moment of relief from the crowd when Gren said that. "It's just that I don't know if he's infected with the disease or carrying something that might be infected. As long as you guys are okay with traveling alongside him without the inspection then I'll start distributing the food immediately."

"As long as he keeps to himself like he has then I see no problem with him being part of our group." The older lady that had spoken to Gren earlier gave her opinion and from the looks of it, most of the others agreed. Gren could see that there were people nodding their heads after she spoke up. "We've been traveling with him since the beginning and haven't gotten this disease from him yet."

"I don't care what the others say, I'm not going to be moving around with someone that might harm my family." A larger man took a hard stance against Gren's proposal. Although the heads of his wife and children were covered up, Gren recognized them as the fox people he inspected earlier. "If they decide to go with him then I'll be leaving this group behind."

"I wouldn't recommend doing that. You don't seem to be armed and there's safety in numbers." With the lives of the children on the line, Gren felt that the man's response was a bit irresponsible. "I understand your concern but at least wait for a bit and we'll see who else shares your view." Gren turned to the other travelers. "Is there anybody else that agrees with this man and wants to separate from the rest of the group?"

There was a lot of murmuring between the smaller groups until someone's voice sounded out amongst them. "We've already lost our cattle to the disease. If we lose our goats and our horses then we'll have nothing left." As a group that suffered loss at an unknown disease, it was understandable for them to be afraid of a possible source of infection. "There's a little bit of room in the back of our wagon for them if they want to ride with us."

The slightly larger group would still be vulnerable to attacks compared to the full convoy but it was at least at an acceptable size. There were no other individuals or groups that decided to part with the rest so Gren pulled their group aside to speak with them in private. "Alright. I'll give you your food and water before the others but I'm still worried about your security. You've got one knife and a dagger between the lot of you. It'd be irresponsible of me to send you off without giving you something to defend yourselves. Do you have any weapon preferences?"

After discussing things with them, Gren distributed the weapons he thought would be best for them. In an unsurprising turn, nobody in their group had practice with any weapons so their selection would be limited. The rancher got a short spear while the large fisherman got a spiked club and a shield. Just to make sure that their wives could defend themselves as well, Gren handed them better daggers than the dull one that they had and provided enough basic armor to keep everybody protected. It was possible that he went a bit overboard but he truly didn't want anything to happen to the two families.

With the smaller group on their way, Gren decided to wait a short while to give them a short lead towards Adierton. They would now have enough food and water to make it there if they didn't waste too much time. "Do you still need to wear that armor?" The only person that seemed to be willing to approach Gren was Georgia so he didn't have to guess who it was. "You've already finished your inspections, haven't you?"

"I could probably take it off now but I've decided to leave it on until they're all gone. I'm not like you, I can't just respond quickly if someone decides to attack us." Through training, Gren had managed to reach the level of an amateur swordsman but his awareness in combat was still almost nonexistent since he hadn't fought in enough battles to develop those skills. "Talking about that, I've been wondering why the female knights like yourself are more skilled than the male knights in the Church. Is it true that only the female knights get to learn magic?"

"I'm not sure where you've heard that but it's not entirely true. The part about women being more skilled because of magic is true but it's more complicated than that. Men can only learn magic after they've become an adult while women start learning it at a young age." So it turns out that the kid was telling the truth. Boys can't learn magic in the Church. "It's odd that you've managed to learn magic despite not reaching an appropriate age, especially when you haven't had a proper magic teacher. It's usually difficult for men to control magic properly until after they've reached their late teens."

"Ah." Gren was reminded of something important thanks to Georgia's words. "Is that why I can't unlock that box that we found in Newton? I've been trying to open it but I keep triggering the false gates because my magic spreads out too far."

"I couldn't tell you that. I've only learned a bit of magic and don't really know much about the specifics behind what I've been taught. You'd have to talk to the trainers in the holy city." That was one of the three places that Gren had been wanting to visit but hadn't had the chance to yet. He had spent too much of his time doing things for the guild to allow himself to travel somewhere else. If there wasn't an emergency in Valkland then he'd probably still be in Adierton trying to improve a guild that didn't even seem to want him there. "You don't have to look so down. You're still young so you'll surely get a chance to figure out what's going on with your magic."

"That's not it. I've just got something on my mind." There was nothing Gren could do about his problems in the middle of nowhere and he had more important things to deal with. "I'll definitely go to the holy city one day but right now I've got to focus on Valkland. Have everybody get in the truck. I'll go give out the rest of the food and weapons so that we can get moving." They had taken too much time with what should have been a short stop but it led to Gren learning more about the disease that they were up against. He didn't have all of the clues yet but it was a good start.

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"Sorry for the wait. I had to discuss some things with the others and figure out how much we could afford to give out." Gren told the travelers a blatant lie but didn't really feel bad about it. It was better than telling them that he wanted to make sure that the others were far enough ahead that the two groups wouldn't meet. The older lady seemed to be the nicest so Gren decided to leave the supplies with her. "I've got the crates set up for the people with wagons and bags for the people that are walking. Don't worry about returning the bags; you guys can keep them."

"Thank you for the food. We really appreciate this. I know that Dugger was a bit rude to you but he has been going through a rough time." He was more than a bit rude but Gren really was asking for a lot from him. The Church had no jurisdiction in the Adier Duchy so they couldn't really force a search on anybody. "He lost a member of his family to some people that claimed to be from the Church. I know that you guys say that the Church wasn't really involved but those people that were burning the bodies of the dead said they were working for the Church."

"I'll make sure to look into that. I'm just a mercenary but I owe the Church a lot so I don't want people using their name to do bad things." Without the members of the Church, he would have thought that he was an orphan in his new life. "If you meet up with any trouble, I've left some weapons wrapped up in blankets for you and the others. I'd recommend only telling the people you trust about them."

"I appreciate what you're doing for us but you should be careful in Valkland. There have been some illnesses that got spread before but this is something different. It's the first time that I've seen the healers powerless to help the people." The older lady's face showed that she was worried about Gren's safety. "We've been on the road for days now. Things could only have gotten worse since then."

"That's why I've got this armor. It looks weird but it protects me from the disease." This was his first chance at explaining it to one of the travelers since there was too much yelling earlier for him to talk about his armor. "Even if things have gotten worse, I'll do my best to help. If you ever need help in Adierton, head on over to the Flours Mercenary Guild. I don't know if it'll do you any good but you can tell them that Gren sent you."

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Gren watched for a while as the travelers loaded the crates before going back towards the truck. When they were fully loaded and started moving, Gren rounded up the Church's members to get ready to continue their journey to Valkland. Getting into the truck with the armor on wasn't possible due to how stiff it was so Gren went back to his old look of blue jeans and a white shirt. The shirt that he was wearing was now soaked with his sweat from the heat. Although Gren knew some spells that could resist the heat and cold, they did nothing to prevent the jet black exterior of his armor from soaking up the sun's rays.

The sweat causing his clothes to stick to his body was uncomfortable but it was able to be dealt with using water magic and a fresh change of clothes. The short break was refreshing but Georgia came to ruin Gren's peaceful mood. "What are we going to do about the infected guy that's still asleep?"

"Ah." Gren forgot about him. "I'll figure something out. For now, just get back in the truck." With there being something else that Gren needed to do, he donned his black armor one more time. {Alright, AI, give me some ideas for a trailer to be used for carrying that infected guy.} Storing the man with the others was not an option and nobody else could drive yet.

<Preparing designs for trailer>

The AI showed off a selection of different designs in the simulation. Each trailer was pulled by a truck identical to the one he had been driving in them. A large number of the designs bounced too much while being pulled on a bumpy dirt road which meant that they were no good for his current purpose.

{Get rid of the ones that aren't suitable for off-road travel.}

Gren's selection became much easier as off-road trailers were in the minority. Their performance in the simulations were nearly identical with the only major difference being the exterior design. Gren wanted something similar to his truck which left him with a small trailer that could fit one or two patients. After some modifications, there were beds and IV racks built into the trailer so that they wouldn't shift as the vehicle moved.

The materialization process was much shorter for the trailer than it was with the truck. Connecting it was made easier by the fact that the truck already had a trailer hitch on it so no modifications needed to be made. All that Gren needed to do was move the unconscious man into the trailer and strap him down--making sure his IV bag was fitted to the rack--and they were ready to go.

{How much longer will that bag last?}

<The IV bag has approximately three more hours before it is empty>

{Can you notify me fifteen minutes before it's empty?}

<Notification set for two hours and forty seven minutes from now>

With the AI acting as an alarm clock and his armor removed, Gren could get back in the driver's seat. "Is everybody in?" After Georgia nodded, Gren turned the key in the truck's ignition--causing the engine to roar to life once again. "We'll need to take a few breaks on our way to Valkland and I'll need to be slower but that shouldn't be a problem. As long as we don't run into trouble then we should be there by the end of tomorrow."

"If you need to take your time then that's fine. You can't help the others if you're overwhelmed." Gren didn't think that those two statements were linked since he was slowing down because of the trailer. Although driving for a long time was stressful, it was still better than his normal daily schedule. "So, how have things been going at home? I've heard that you've been getting into arguments with your wife; the goblin one. Sorry, I can't really remember her name."

"Estella. Although we were fighting for a while, things seem a bit better now." The problem that she had with him was that he kept keeping secrets from her but now the existence of the system was the only secret he was keeping. His wives knew almost nothing about the system but it was not like he knew that much more about it than they did. "She was a bit upset when I came back with another wife but we managed to talk through it."

"Another wife? How do you find the time to get a new wife? I would think that your hands were already full with three of them." That was a reasonable assumption for Georgia to make. A regular person would be unable to handle multiple spouses.

"My wives all have their own things to do so it's not like we spend all that much time together. Estella is always busy with the kids, Jasmine is usually on a request, and Jessica runs the FMC. It feels like they've got everything at home covered." Gren did wish to spend more time with his wives but the times when they were available were often times when he was busy. "Besides, they get along with each other so there are few problems at home. At least with my wives, anyways. The guild itself is a different story."

"I've heard a bit about that and I've got to say that you've made some questionable decisions lately. I haven't heard the results of the vote your guild was having but I can easily guess what they decided." Bringing up the vote made Gren's mood to sour but he figured that it would probably be best to talk about it with an outsider that knew what was going on. "Did you even want them to make you a leader?"

"I didn't think that I cared about the position itself but it felt bad to have them vote against me. i guess that some part of me cared about it." Ever since he found out about the results, Gren had been reflecting on how he failed. "I've given it a lot of thought and came to the conclusion that they were right; I'm not leader material. I'm always making mistakes and I'm not exactly the smartest person in the world. It's no surprise that I did something as ridiculous as overestimating how much I mattered to the guild."

"Is that really the problem? I'm sure that most of them think that you're Important. You did free them, after all, and people aren't going to hate the person that gave them freedom over a few mistakes." Gren wasn't so sure if Georgia was right. It's not like he was Harriet Tubman--freeing hundreds of slaves while risking his life. He only spent a little bit of money so his accomplishments weren't so great. "From what I've been told, the greatest reasons why they didn't give you some leadership position were that you're too young, you were more focused on helping people outside of the guild--they mentioned something about houses--and that you didn't really socialize with them. Nobody wants a leader that helps others before their own people or only sends messages through intermediaries. The age thing can't really be helped but you should work on the other problems if you want to be a leader."

Gren had been thinking on his own without asking the others about their decision. He didn't think of himself as a child so he wouldn't have considered that it would be a factor in the decision. Although thirteen was the age someone was considered an adult, that didn't mean that someone would trust a leader that just reached the age of maturity. Even on Earth, an eighteen years old CEO would constantly face doubt from those around them.

As for the other reasons, they were caused by his previous life. Gren was used to working in a space where you never interacted with your boss directly. It was common for executives to only make an appearance at conferences and parties. Giving out houses was part of a plan to knock out the competition. It wasn't necessarily a charitable venture since they'd still be making a small amount of money in the end but it would certainly look that way from the perspective of the guild members. They just saw him giving people free places to stay while they were all stuck in a basement.

As Gren drove down the bumpy road, he thought about why he came to his initial conclusion. They were such basic reasons and yet he didn't think of them--instead assuming that some sort of malicious reason would be behind their decision. That line of thinking wasn't healthy but it came naturally and Gren didn't know why he made that assumption. His age couldn't be helped since he had lived for over twenty years and still had those memories but there was something wrong with his way of thinking.

With the sun still overhead and the fork behind them, the truck arrived at the first buildings they had seen since leaving Adierton. This was only the third time that Gren had been here and there were some small differences but it was the place where he was given a second chance at life. Perhaps when he returned here in the future he could restore it but without the people it wouldn't be the same.