7. You saw this as a game and not as a job

Ten minutes later, only the sound of the cracking fire could be heard as Ogron gently placed his foot on one of the corpses before ripping out his spear. "Thanks, Simaev," he cursed loudly while glaring at her with his glowing red eyes.

"I'm…;" Simaev tried to apologize, but Ogron cut her short, "I don't care about your apologies. I only care about results, and you fucked up."

Ogron slowly grabbed the nearest corpse and took off their clothes as he continued, "If you only asked yourself once, like, is it really worth it to risk my cover just to knock two people unconscious at the same time, THIS WHOLE FIASCO COULD HAVE BEEN AVOIDED."

By now, Ogron's wrath was hearable, and Simaev quietly helped undress one corpse after the other.

"You saw this as a game and not as a job, and your pride cost them their life," Ogron quietly continued as he grabbed the next corpse before continuing on with his talk.

After the two were done undressing and looting the corpses, the two quietly stacked their corpses on top of each other before setting them ablaze.

"5 gold coins, 2000 silver coins, and 50.000 bronze coins," Ogron quietly counted in front of the fire before placing them each in separate pouches.

Simaev remained quiet and carried three sacks filled with useful stuff.

"Anyway, let's leave this place," Ogron sighed, and the two went back to the camp. "Let's just say we found a dead caravan that was attacked by ogres or so."

Simaev nodded.

…

"So you just found a bunch of dead travelers and looted them?" Az asked with a raised eyebrow, suspicion evident in his voice.

"Yeah, they were all dead. Those poor fellas probably got attacked by a group of ogres or so," Ogron lied smoothly.

"I don't really believe you, but whatever," Az quietly sighed before grabbing one of the short swords and attaching it to his belt. "Let's continue our journey."

…

…

A few days later, the group finally arrived at the end of the forest.

"It's time for you guys to dress up. After all, we don't want them to know that I got a group of sentient skeletons as my minions," Az sighed before jumping out of his skeleton horse.

"Wise choice," commented Ogron, ruffling gently through Az's hair. "You've matured quite a lot since the day you awakened me."

Embarrassed by the gesture, Az stuttered, "Thanks," enjoying the chilly touch of Ogron, who was trying his best to give him some human affection. "My idea was that you guys dress and act as my proto guardians while we enter that border town," Az continued.

Simaev immediately grabbed Az by his cheeks before remarking in amusement, "So you'll be playing the young nobleman who wanted to go hunting near the woods while we continue our roles as your babysitter. Did I get it right?"

But before Az could refute, Ogron laughed in amusement, "Well, it wouldn't be the first time we had to play as his parents."

By now, Az's face was bright red, and he began hitting Ogron's chest while loudly refuting them. "I never asked any of you guys to play those roles!!!"

After a few minutes of bickering, Az's minions changed their equipment to a dark silver armor, that hit their bodies quiet well. Tp prevent anyone from noticing that skeletons were in the armors, The group also pushed general pieces of clothes into their armors, to mask themselves.

"We're done," Ogron stated and the group marched towards the town in the distance.

Upon reaching the settlement, Az quickly realized that it was quite a dead town. There was nothing much to see there, except for a few people walking in ragged and dirty clothes through the streets.

"It reeks," Az quickly muttered, waving his hand in front of his nose before making his way towards a shop, that had a bunch of hides hanging in front of the door.

Walking inside the shop, one could see a bored shopkeeper who ignored the group. The store was quite dusty, and rats were seen from time to time. Only after Ogron placed a few hides onto the counter did the shopkeeper bat an eye.

The old merchant merely glanced at the four before putting on his glasses to inspect the hides. Nodding, he showed them his interest in buying those wolves hides.

After a few minutes, he looked up before asking with a smile, "How much do you want for them?"

Az, not knowing how much he could get for it, stated confidently, "500 silver coins and no negotiations."

But the merchant only shook his head before replying coldly, "300."

Az shook his head before stating, "The farthest I will go is 400," and the merchant sighed before placing a pouch filled with coins onto the counter.

But instead of Az, Simaev took the pouch and emptied it onto the counter.

"Simaev?" Az asked in confusion as the latter glanced at the money before stating, "These aren't 400 silver coins."

Before the merchant could even blink, Ogron's smear immediately pressed against his chest.

"Are you trying to scam us!?" Ogron asked with a raised voice, as even Otaz slowly unsheathed his sword.

Sweat began trickling down the merchant's forehead, and he slowly placed another pouch on the counter.

Siamev nodded in content, and the group left the shop.

Outside, Az quietly asked, "Wasn't our goal to keep a low profile!?!? Also why is everyone treating me like a child that can be easily scammed."

Siamev only smiled, grabbing Az's hand with her gauntlet. "Well, sometimes we gotta bar our teeths to show others that they cannot take advantage of us. Also you are a child, a naive but a sweet one."

The group moved on to buy a few essential things like rubbing alcohol, and spices before heading towards the guild hall.

Upon entering the guild Tavern, vulgar comments were heard from the benches as waiters or waitresses regularly supplied them with alcoholic beverages.

"Lord, this doesn't seem to be a place where we should stay more than we need," Otaz commented in disgust.

Ogron nodded in agreement before walking with Az towards the counter.

There, Az and Ogron filled out the necessary paperwork for a registration and after paying the membership fee, the lady stated with a forced smile, "Thanks for registering, but it will take another day to create the lad's guild card. But you guys can still pick up a few missions in the mean time."

The two nodded before walking to the pin wall, where all the missions were listed.

Az immediately grabbed the cool missions like, slaying a local monster tyrant, and so forth, only for Ogron to shake his head, and place the missions back onto the pin wall.

"Aren't we here to make some quick money!?" Az asked in confusion and Ogron chuckled. "No, lad. Az, we came here to pick some missions for you," Ogron stated pressing his finger gently against Az's chest. "After all, you are still an inexperienced greenhorn, and we don't want that you become dependent on us, or do we."

Az looked away out of embarrassment, and Ogron ruffled through his hair before registering the missions at the counter.

On the way to the exit, two men in shining armor blocked their way.