Chapter 63.1 - Clan Founding 3 Part 1

Translator: SFBaka

Editor: Thor’s Stone

What’s up with everyone suddenly wanting to learn my swordsmanship all of a sudden? It looks like everyone gained an intense curiosity and admiration for my swordsmanship style, and Captain Dalshim ended up proposing joint training through practice matches.

And as the Clan leader, I couldn’t afford to lose in front of all of them. In order to maintain my facade of superiority, I ended the matches in one, two, or at most, three strikes. And I had to win against all one hundred of them.

Everyone was using the same swordsmanship style as Elna’s. Their swordsmanship highly emphasized one-hit killing moves, but as a consequence, it had a lot of openings to exploit. It’s great that Corinth-style can be used to deal with it somehow due to its high number of sword strokes per move.

I was already running on fumes by the time I finished all the matches, but I somehow managed to fool the crowd that I still had plenty of fight left.

Oh, man. That really was terrible. I’m gonna get back on Elna for this one of these days. Mark my words.

When everyone finished bathing to wash off the sweat, it was already dinnertime. I really wanted to drink some chilled ale, so I told the kitchen staff to serve me some.

And then, I saw a young girl carrying a tankard of ale from the kitchen with tottering steps. Everyone was watching over the girl with warm gazes. She finally managed to bring the ale tankard to where I was sitting.

“Bro.”

I’m glad. It looks like Ella’s doing well here.

“You’re really working hard, aren’t you, Ella?”

“Un! It’s fun.”

“I see. Good job. Do your best, okay.”

“Un.”

She went back to the kitchen with a spring to her steps. It looks like Sally-san and the others are taking good care of Ella and her brother.

I called the attention of everyone after we finished our meals for the night.

“Everyone! I have something to tell you! The money we recovered from the bandit hideout today has been counted, and we got a total of 310,000 Guineas. We’ve also sold the other loot items for roughly 250,000 Guineas.”

“”Ooh!””

“We’ve also received the request rewards from the guild, and it amounts to 210,000 Guineas. The bounty rewards are also scheduled to be paid out soon.”

“”Ooooh!””

“I’ll announce the amount again once we receive bounty rewards.”

I want to distribute our earnings as fairly to everyone as possible. I’m sure that would allow their motivation to increase more.

“Captain Dalshim. Can you gather the party leaders for a meeting on the fourth-floor office again tonight?”

“Understood.”

After dinner, my party members and the party leaders of the other squads all gathered inside the Clan office.

“Now then, there’s a number of things I want to discuss with you all. One of them is the monthly wages of the Clan members. In your opinion, how much should be our monthly wage?”

“Wage is it…? We’re already being provided both breakfast and dinner, so I think the bare minimum amount should be just right. 500 Guineas should be more than enough.”

But 500 Guineas seems far too low. It can’t possibly cover their daily necessities, clothes, and lunch. If a person lacks money, it would not lead to anything good. It affects their mental and emotional well-being as well.

“500 Guineas is too little. Let’s set it to 1500 Guineas instead.”

With this salary amount, they could buy themselves some alcohol or new clothes from time to time. Everyone’s risking their lives and doing their best after all. They deserve at least that much reward for their efforts.

Captain Dalshim looked like he still wanted to say something, but he held himself back in the end.

“Alan, let’s set our own salaries to that amount as well. Actually, I haven’t really spent that much money this past month.”

My party members all nodded in agreement. Well, I did only spend on our lunch, the dress I bought for Ella, as well as the barbecue plate I commissioned. Hmm. A thousand Guineas might be too much after all.

“Yosh. Let’s do that then. Captain, I’d like you to select two or three people who can manage the Clan funds. And also, some who will be in charge of procuring supplies, food, and daily necessities.”

Managing everything by myself has become quite a pain after all. I’m sure there are more qualified people among the members than me when it comes to things like that.

“Understood. I’ll select some appropriate people tomorrow.”

“Yosh. Let’s discuss our bandit hunting activities next. Our numbers have grown large so we don’t really need to deploy all our men to raid a few bandit hideouts. Having all of the Clan members take action for that is very inefficient. Thus, I propose forming two subjugation teams that will act separately.”

When I observed their reactions, no one seemed against the idea. I guess that’s to be expected.

“I’ll also have the Shining Star party members split up accordingly in consideration of even personnel distribution. I’ll go with one team while the four of you will go with the other.”

“So we will have to act separately from you, Alan?”

“That’s right. Not to boast, but the strength of the teams won’t be balanced if we don’t do something like this.”

“I guess so. I agree with your idea, Alan.”

It looks like Sharon and Selena agree with me as well. Cleria seemed convinced too and nodded her head.

“I’ll lead one of the subjugation teams. As for the other one, I’ll have Selena lead it with Sharon acting as her second-in-command.”

When I observed their reactions, there doesn’t seem to be anyone who had doubts about my decision. It goes without saying for Cleria and Elna. Selena and Sharon looked really pumped up as well.

“Do have any opinion about this, Captain Dalshim?”

“It would only be appropriate for someone who has a greater grasp of vital information and the overall situation to lead the men out on the field. Thus, having these two ladies who are proficient with scanning magic lead the men will be ideal. The two of them already proved themselves during the bandit subjugation last time, so I imagine their appointment will be more than welcome with the rest of the members.”

Fumu. I certainly didn’t expect things to go this well. The reasons Captain Dalshim mentioned are truly part of the reason why I appointed the two of them for the leadership role.

However, another vital reason was that Selena was next in rank after me according to the imperial military system. If, for some reason, I happened to die, Selena would be next-in-line to be appointed as captain instead of Sharon, and she will lead the imperial military forces we will raise on this planet in my stead. In preparation for that possibility, I would like to let Selena and Sharon accumulate as much leadership experience as possible.

“Alright then. The subjugation team Selena and Sharon will lead will be called the A Team. Mine will be the B Team.”

I spread the rolled-up map I brought with me on the table.

“Let’s talk about the bandit groups we will be attacking next. Please take a look at this map. The bandits have set up their traps in these locations. They number about eighteen. No more than fourteen of them position themselves close to the traps. The remaining four remain on their hideout as guards. The hideout is located over here. I plan to have the A Team handle them.”

“Roger.”

“Selena, go and take Satellite Squads 1 to 5 with you. You would need one day of travel to reach the target, so you would need to spend two nights out on the field at maximum.”

“Understood.”

I’ve surveyed the bandit hideout and their positions through the drone and had Iris compile them into a video. I’ll send it to Sharon and Selena later.

I already checked it out in advance, and honestly speaking, the video quality was sub-par. I’ll have to teach Iris how to make and edit a higher-quality video sometime soon.

“The B Team will be composed of Satellite Squads 6 to 10. We’ll attack the bandits hiding out in this location. They have twenty men. We’ll probably need to spend two nights out on the field as well.”

I saw the party leaders of Satellite Squads 6 to 10 give the map a serious once-over.

“To be honest, attacking with our numbers should guarantee our victory. Our men are highly trained elites, incomparable to these bandits. And they probably won’t be able to withstand an attack with twice their numbers. I can’t really see us losing to these guys at all. That’s why what I’m aiming for is a total victory. I’d like you all to give your best effort in order to ensure that none of our men get injured and not lose anyone during this operation. Our ultimate goal is still far from our grasp. We don’t have the luxury of making mistakes at this point. Understood?”

“Roger!”

“Understood!”

“A Team and B Team will depart together by daybreak one day from now. In the meantime, plan the most efficient and effective way to attack and secure the bandits with your respective teams tomorrow.”

With that, I concluded tonight’s meeting. I’m quite worn out today, so I fell asleep right away.