Chapter 394: Learning about How the Mercenary Guild Works

Joshua and the rest of his group stared wide eyed at the illusionist now known as Vincent that still held a big grin on his face even after rising back up. Before any of them could say anything he created a rose out of thin air showcasing his abilities and blowing on it causing the petals to fly in to different direction each heading towards one of the women on Joshua's side. They all looked back at him shocked by his actions while Lily and Amy just chuckled it off.

"To see such beautiful women brings an everlasting smile to my face. I must say Joshua is truly lucky to have you all on his side." Vincent said with another small bow and wink.

"Oh boy. Looks like we have an even more experienced play boy than Adrian on our hands." Henry said with a sigh as the martial artist now known as Aurora jumped up and kicked Vincent in the back causing him to fall to the ground.

"That hurt my little Aurora." He said as he got up and dusted himself off. "There's no need to be jealous. You know I'll always cherish you." Even Joshua could see the slight blush starting to appear on the feisty woman's face. She looked away from Vincent getting sighs from the other women of the group. Joshua wasn't quite sure what their relationship was at the moment, but he got the feeling it was more than just friends.

"Why exactly did you guys decide to go with the princess names from all of those old fairy tales?" Henry asked a bit surprised. "They don't really seem like mercenary names to me."

"It was Vince's idea." Ariel the fire mage of the group said while face palming. "The only reason he even went with these stupid names was because Cinderella actually has that name for her real middle name. Kids used to make fun of her for it back in school so Vince decided wearing such names with pride as we take over the mercenary world by storm would be ironic."

"Besides it's such a fitting name." Vince said as he turned to look at the poor healer who had a forced smile on her face through the entire conversation.

"Judging by the way you guys act around each other I'm guessing you've all known each other for quite a while." Joshua asked as he noticed the playful banter between Vince and the four women. He also picked up on the child hood remark which most likely meant that they all went way back, or at least that the girls did with each other.

"Yeah we all grew up going to the same schools as kids, so we knew each other fairly well. Hell I've been over to each of their houses so many times as a kid that their parents know just as much about me as my own do." Vincent said with a proud smile.

"He's being honest about that at least. We've known each other since we were kids, and that's one of the main reasons we work so well together." Mulan said while the other three nodded.

"Before we get any further off topic I'd like to know what got you guys interested in getting into this territory war in the first place. Or I guess I should say who did to be more accurate." Henry said as he looked towards Vince who still had a small smile on his face, but he was being a bit more serious with the change of topic.

"I'm sure you've all figured out who got the Scavenger's Guild involved with taking your guild on in the territory war in the first place. It isn't any big secret that the World Government Guild is basically giving the orders in that relationship. From what I can tell the members of the Scavenger's Guild don't have the balls to decline such a request unlike the Raider's Guild." Vincent explained.

"Yeah we figured that part out, we just don't know who got you all involved." Adrian said showing their feelings on the matter.

"Well I'm glad you all didn't assume the usual leader of the World Government Guild was the reason we got involved with this territory war. After all Kyle is a bit of a pampered rich kid and I don't think I would have excepted if he was involved in the negotiations. He gives off a bad vibe." Vincent said with an annoyed look when thinking of the man.

"It's not like the little weasel that did give us the invitation was all that much better." Aurora said while shaking her head.

"Yeah, the one who did invite us into this little display of bravado wan none other than Theodore Walker. The right hand man to Kyle White and another little bastard that doesn't deserve his position, but at least he isn't as annoying to deal with as Kyle otherwise I might have just passed up on this opportunity."

"I'm guessing from the way that you put things that Theodore isn't the real reason that you guys decided to get involved in this territory war." Henry said. None of them were surprised by this since Madalyn and Laura had both described Theodore as an ass that thought he was better than everyone else. Joshua was surprised that Vincent was even able to put up with working for such a person.

"Well at least this is a sign that there are probably internal struggles going on inside of the World Government Guild at the moment. Otherwise Theodore wouldn't be going behind his own leaders back." Ivan said giving everyone a good idea of what was going on. The old man was far more experienced with those types of situations than any of the young members of Joshua's guild could possibly be.

"Anyways we put up with that idiot's big talk for a few minutes before deciding to join the territory war, but not because of him. Oh no, we decided to join the territory war to get a shot at you." Vincent said while pointing at Joshua. "After seeing you fight in the battle arena I just had to test myself against you, but in a one on one fight I'd never stand a chance. So the battle arena wasn't the best way to go about getting a good fight with you."

"That's when that jerk showed up with the job and of course Vince couldn't pass it up." Ariel said with a sigh. "Sorry for causing you guys any trouble, Vince only gets like this when he's really interested in something."

"Besides it was great fight. I haven't been able to fight against anyone that's as good at close ranged combat as you before. It was eye opening. I've got a long way to go before I can match someone like you in my hand to hand skills." Aurora said with a small smile.

"Well you can always check out my father's dojo if you want to learn from the man that taught me after all. He's been getting a lot of new disciples lately, but your skills will definitely get his attention if you stop by. Maybe we can have another spar then or you could even go against my sister who's also a martial artist." Joshua said while pointing over to Amy. His sister waved towards Aurora who smiled back at her.

"Your swordsmanship was also great. Especially with such a large weapon. You didn't give me a single opening to go after." Mulan said with a small smile as she looked towards Joshua.

"Thanks for the praise, but I've got nothing on Adrian or Victor when it comes to pure swordsmanship." Joshua simply responded. Before the conversation could continue Vincent decided to jump in and break up the little chummy conversation between his partners and Joshua.

"Hey I was awesome too. Just look how easily I was able to turn the tides of battle." Vincent said with a smug look. That look wasn't able to stay for very long as the one he considered an Angel of his group shot him down rather quickly.

"The only reason we were able to change things so quickly was because of the fact most of their experienced members hung back while we focused on the few that actually got involved. I don't think we would have been able to do all that much if all of them were involved in the territory war from the start." Cinderella said with a thoughtful look.

"My little Cindy shot me in the back like this…I think my whole world will come crashing down soon." Vincent said with an exaggerated sigh as his illusions seemed to show off everything around them falling apart to emphasize his words.

Everyone ignored his actions while Henry decided to get to know a little bit more about mercenary life while he had one of the best mercenaries in front of him. "Since we've already got a pretty good idea for why you guys are here in the first place I was wondering if you could fill us in on how this whole mercenary thing works. We've heard a few things here and there, but haven't really crossed paths when any of you guys up to this point."

"Well don't believe half the things some assholes will say about us mercenaries." Mulan said with a lot of distaste in her words. "Those people don't know what we do and blame almost everything on us half the time."

"Mercenaries really only get involved when guilds or individuals pay us to do a certain job. Jobs such as helping out with dungeon dives. Maybe a solo explorer will hire some mercenaries to help them clear a dungeon that they would have struggled with on their own. Or a situation such as this one could happen where one side hires mercenaries to help out with a territory war." Ariel said giving a basic idea of how mercenaries work.

"We get all of our jobs through the mercenary guild now days since it's much more organized and it pretty much guarantees we get payed in the end." Aurora said with a serious look that looked almost cute on her petite frame. "In the past customers would always skimp out on mercenaries once they got back in the hub city since Violence wasn't allowed. The only secure transactions through the system at the moment is through either the market or guilds at this point so solo work could end up getting you scammed if you aren't careful doing things on your own."

"The mercenary guild helped fix all of those problems and made a place for us mercenaries to come together and mingle. Form groups and what not." Cinderella said taking over the conversation. "The issue now is that a lot of people believe us mercenaries will take jobs that involve killing people or other underhanded things. We do a lot for money, but not that."

"People tend to get us mercenaries confused with some of the hitman groups out there that often get mixed up with us, but we don't take hit jobs or screw over other groups inside of dungeons purposely. At least none of the mercenaries that are involved with the mercenary guild do." Vincent said with a big grin after getting over his little depressed episode. "So if you need any help in the future be sure to give us a call. I'm sure you lot get into all kinds of interesting situations."

Although Joshua didn't want to agree with him after seeing that smug face, he couldn't argue the fact that his guild seemed to always get involved in anything interesting going on. It wouldn't be a bad idea to have such a powerful ally as Vincent and the rest of his group when it came to future endeavors. Now Joshua just needed to figure out why his group was being targeted by this Theodore and if he should be prepared for more interference.