Thanks

Back in the guild office, Sumia was in the kitchen. I was at one of the empty tables, waiting for Sawyer to return from his assassination mission. There were lots of meats, and the villagers had moved them to the cold storage in the hunter's basement.

I didn't have the opportunity to see the basement though, but it should have been very large to contain that large amount of meat. To be honest, it was way too easy, but the village would feel the impact of that.

Sumia came out of the kitchen with a teapot and cups on a tray. She put the teapot on the table and poured the hot tea into the cups. He gave me a cup of tea and she sat down right in front of me.

"Hey, thanks for the help, never thought you'd do that," Sumia sipped on her tea.

"Hmm?" I grabbed my cup and put it near my mouth.

"Your first impression didn't strike me as the charitable kind, to be honest," Sumia said.

"What is your first impression of me, then?" I smiled and I sipped on the tea.

"Mercenary-type. Not just a regular mercenary either, you're more like those bounty hunters," Sumia answered.

"What if I were one? What if I used to be one?" I played her.

"Does it matter, though? I'm just your average regular crippled guild master, and I'm going, to be honest, the fact that you haven't tried to kill me is enough to convince me," Sumia answered.

"Does it happen that often?" I sipped on my tea.

Sumia just nodded as she poured more tea into her cup. I sipped more tea while looking outside. The villagers had gone in all directions, some of them went to the forest, and some of them went to the back of their houses.

"Ah, the hunting banquet, eh?" Sumia commented as she sipped on her tea.

"Hunting banquet?"

"Basically, a grill party. The whole village always does that after meat hunting, and the fact that you hunt three bison pretty much guarantee that," Sumia said.

Suddenly, someone came through the front door of the guild. The person was wearing bandages around his hand. I recognized the face, he was the hunter. He walked in my direction and greeted Sumia.

"John, how's your hand?" Sumia asked.

"Still painful, but a little bit better," John answered.

"Do you feel any fever? Or something smells fishy?" I asked John, pertaining to his wound.

"Nah, I'm fine. By the way, Sumia, who's the guy and his friend?" John was wondering.

"This person is called Alfie, the stranger that turns out to be charitable. The other person that fixes things is called Sawyer, he's currently out, doing a quest," Sumia answered.

"Alfie, thanks for the meat, and my hand," John said.

"Hey, the pleasure is mine," I said.

Appearance-wise, John looked like a former soldier that always wielded a bow, judging from the bulge on his right hand. What motivated him to move to the middle of nowhere, though?

"By the way, if you need anything for me, just say it, alright, Alfie, right?" John asked.

"Yup, my name's Alfie," I said.

"People are also thankful for the pump, with that, we can start maintaining the field again," John said.

"Thank Sawyer for that, I'm just a mere healer," I said.

"See you later, Alfie," John left the guild office to help with the banquet.

I continued the tea party with Sumia afterward, too bad that there were no cookies. The British would kill for this tea, it was good. The smell was like a flower, and it tasted good, not too bitter, but not like drinking mere brown water either.

I put my M16 on the other chair. Sumia kept looking at my M16 for some unknown reasons. What? She was enticed about the weapon? If she'd like to shoot it, so be it.

I wasn't concerned if these people from another world suddenly gained knowledge of firearms, in fact, the faster they could use them, the better. Sumia might be one of the first candidates, perhaps?

Even if they managed to steal one of my M16s, would they be able to manufacture it? Sure, the big parts would be easy, but how about the small parts? Would they be able to manufacture it in the first place?

"Sumia? Why are you keep looking at my M16?" I finally asked her.

"Oh, you noticed?" Sumia was indeed looking at my rifle.

"I did," I said.

"Well, if that's the case, what's the story with that weapon? It is deadlier than bow, and yet, I noticed you used it without any meaningful difficulty," Sumia commented.

If you ever asked me whether I could use a bow or not, I'd say I couldn't. Bow required practice to be fired accurately alongside with a large amount of strength. With rifle, it was only a matter of aiming it well alongside your reaction time.

"It's a replacement for a bow in my country. In my country, people rarely can use magic, so we look for alternatives," I replied.

"Still, I'm impressed by your combat skill, how did you learn to exterminate that many amounts of bandits?" Sumia asked.

"From service with the military," I said.

Well, the NAF military didn't exactly teach me all of that. I only got the advanced skills once I joined the agency because of the deal that I created to free her from federal prison. I didn't regret it, but it took some parts of my life.

"I see," Sumia sipped on her tea again, discontinuing the conversation.

I sipped on the tea until the sun almost went to the west side. Sumia kept making a new pot every time I finished a pot. The men of the village had started smoking the meats outside, but they hadn't begun eating yet.

Eventually, someone knocked on the door. He opened the door. A figure with a FAST ballistic helmet alongside an ARMIS body armor entered the guild office. He was carrying a military daypack in his bag, and it was also filled to the brim with stuff that I didn't know.

Sawyer put the backpack near me and grabbed a chair to sit down. There was a small bandage covering his right chin alongside a small bandage on his left hand. However, he was unscratched, not bad for an assassin.

"YOU HAVE RETURNED?" Sumia asked back in shock.

"Well, yeah? This is the evidence," Sawyer grabbed something from his jacket pocket and put it on the table, it was an eyeball. Whose eyeball? Well, probably the eyeball of that someone that he killed for the bounty.

"You know?" Sumia grabbed the eyeball with her hand. "You can use his clothing or something? But still, thanks. Let me grab the payment for you, alongside the exchange for yesterday's coins." Sumia walked to the backroom of the guild office to retrieve the rewards.

Sawyer changed his position and sat down right in front of me, "That was easier than expected."

"How so?" I asked.

"Well, I killed the target first from afar using the M16, after that, I infiltrated the mansion to get the eyeball. Of course, I also do some looting for our hardware," Sawyer said.

"Good job, mate. I know I can count on you," I praised him.

"Anyway, how's the situation on your side?" Sawyer asked.

"Good, we managed to hunt three bison, but there's something bothering me," I said.

"What's that?" Sawyer asked.

"Lobus asked me to collect taxes from these poor villagers. I don't even think they have the money to pay for it, what should I do? Any idea?" I asked.

"Pay the tax with our money. We need to build a good rapport with the village, and if you change into a tax collector, you'll jeopardize it immediately," Sawyer suggested.

"Right, you're 100% right," I agreed with him.

Sumia came back to our table with three Damascus Kira plates alongside a round white coin. I didn't know the value of the white coin, but it should be around 30,000 Arleum in total on top of our table. It should be enough to buy us an armor.

"There you go, 35,000 Arleum in coins, now, what'll you two do with that huge amount of money?" Sumia asked.

"Well, truth be told, Sawyer and I have a plan for it," I just smiled. No way I'd be saying we were planning to buy more weapons and armor for us.

"Oh, best of luck to you two, then," Sumia said.

Sumia left for upstairs again. We noticed how she walked. She was limping even when she was walking upstairs. Poor woman, wish I could give him a good bionic leg so she could walk normally again. Anyway, back to the main topic.

"We should return to the mansion," I said.

"Yeah, couldn't think anything better."