Helping with Adventurer Party Management - Chapter 39

As dusk settled, I returned to the inn and found Sarah waiting for me. When she saw my face, she jumped up from her seat and came over to me.

“So, how did it go? What were you talking about?”

“Oh, you were waiting for me?”

“Of course I was waiting! I thought if you got recruited, I’d celebrate with you!”

“Yeah, about that. Recruitment… I’m still considering it.”

“Considering it? So you were recruited but you’re hesitating? Why!?”

It seemed Sarah had put her hopes up.

“And on top of that, you’re hesitating about an invitation from a top clan like the Sword Fangs Legion. I don’t get it. Why? Was the offer not good enough?”

“No, I think they offered me the same treatment as the vice-captain.”

“That’s amazing!”

“It’s not like they saw potential in my sword skills. It’s probably just doing paperwork in the background.”

“Ha… that’s nice, you’re educated. You’re lucky to have options. Why are you hesitating?”

“I didn’t turn it down. I just couldn’t decide.”

It’s no wonder Sarah envied me. For adventurers like her, there are three paths to rise to the top:

The first path: If you’re lucky enough to survive until old age despite declining physical strength, start a small business with savings, or buy farmland and livestock to start a farm back home.

The second path: If you get injured or sick to the point of incapacity, you may crawl through life relying on the church’s charity in poorhouses or slums.

The third and final path: This is the most common—dying in the middle of a quest.

Even if you start a small business, many end up bankrupt within a few years after being cheated. In this path, competing against merchants with decades of experience is futile for beginners who just started yesterday. As a result, former adventurers turned merchants often find themselves working in risky distribution routes that city merchants avoid.

Merchants undertaking intercity transport are mostly former adventurers. Similarly, many personnel employed in these caravans are also former adventurers. For adventurers, being employed by a major caravan company after retirement can be considered a highly successful path.

With that in mind, I feel like there would be a demand for shoes among those former adventurers working in caravans. They walk just as much as active adventurers do.

Suddenly, when I looked up, Sarah was staring at me intently.

She then asked me worriedly, “So, what are you going to do about your current business?”