Chapter 1119: Squad Captain Fran

After we finished introductions, Maleficent called out to the volunteers in the square.

「Over here, gentlemen! Gather around! Let me introduce you to the captain who be leading this squad!」

The volunteers in the plaza walked over, probably since they knew the one calling them was a Rank A adventurer. However, their pace was very sluggish and lazy.

Despite that, Maleficent simply smiled at them.

「Oh, and just so you know, I’ve only been hired as a guide. Black Lightning Princess-dono, I ask that you handle the actual ordering everyone around part as captain. Persona will also be taking a step back.」

「You’re just a guide?」

Despite being Rank A? Wouldn’t that put Fran higher than you?

「Allow me to explain, I love heroes to death. I love collecting the stories of heroes, talking to heroes, and seeing heroes in action with my very own eyes. And right now, the hottest new hero on the continent is you, Black Lightning Princess-dono, the savior of the black cats. I took this dull job of guiding a squadron of volunteer soldiers so I could work with you!」

「…What do you mean?」

「I mean to say that we’re huge fans, and want to observe you up close and personal! But we’ll be rather busy observing, so we can’t do much fighting! Well, I suppose we can handle a few chores if you ask.」

So basically, you took the guide job just so you could get close to Fran? Normal fans are fine and all, but you’d better not enter her personal space.

If you try anything disgusting, my blade is going straight up your ass!

（Master?）

『…Seems like he’s fine with you leading.』

「Okay. I’ll be the captain.」

「Thanks, Captain Fran!」

「…」

Maleficent and Persona both started clapping. Are these guys really okay?

When the adventurers finally finished gathering, Maleficent explained the situation to them.

「Listen up everyone. This is Fran-dono, your new captain. Applause please.」

While there was a bit of sparse applause, most of them simply stared at Fran in an attempt to gauge her worth. Though they did not radiate hostility or anything, it seems many refused to accept her as leader.

「Now then, I trust you can take care of the rest?」

「Nn. I’m the Rank B Adventurer Fran, the captain of this convoy.」

「Whoa, what? That little girl is Rank B?」

「I think I’ve heard some rumors about her.」

「We have to listen to this damn kid?!」

I overheard some of the whispers going around the crowd, and almost all of them were negative: surprise, jealousy, contempt, etc. We might be in for a tough ride…

That said, no one went as far as to make a scene. They understood they were dealing with a Rank B adventurer, and their role as volunteer soldiers.

As a result of their internal clash between patience and rebellion, it seems they decided to take a wait-and-see attitude. Urushi kept glaring at them behind Fran, so that probably helped us a bit.

Urushi knew how important first impressions were, so he maintained a larger than usual side. The giant wolf staring down on the adventurers with a scary face was pretty impressive.

『I guess we’ll have to see where we go from here.』

The supplies were already packing onto six wagons. We suggested transporting them in our storage, but Klimt said earlier that he wanted to give the volunteers experience in escorting supply convoys.

It seems the volunteers gathered under us today were, despite their abilities, judged to be inadequate for integration into normal units. There were apparently a variety of reasons for this, such as bad conduct and disobeying the orders of anyone they didn’t like.

Maybe they have some kind of vendetta against Raydoss, but why would such misbehaving adventurers go as far as to volunteer for a war? The answer to my question ended up being more simple than I thought.

Though the Adventurers Guild never forces its members to participate in wars, it sometimes acts as an intermediary for countries requesting participation. As a result, anyone willing to participate can reap the rewards and gain standing in the guild.

And it seems even adventurers with such poor reputations are allowed to join as volunteer soldiers. I suppose nations cannot afford to be picky with manpower.

I bet some were interested in looting the enemy country too. While this is generally a violation of military law, some commanders are willing to overlook such actions.

Putting such volunteers in a regular unit will only cause unnecessary friction. On the other hand, it would also be a waste to keep such forces idle considering their strength.

So as a result, they were assigned to guard this supply transport. That said, could these bloodthirsty problem children actually handle a boring transport mission?

When I hear about these “problem children adventurers”, I’m reminded of Krad and his friends, who once accompanied us inside a dungeon. While they started off with a pretty bad attitude, they got serious when it came to the actual mission. But the guys in this squad were way worse. Putting it simply, they seem like pure scum.

I attempted an appraisal on the ones who looked particularly bad, since Persona was standing quite a distance away, and it worked. I found many with skills only belonging to criminals, such as Threaten, Theft, and Fraud.

Naturally, the guild and the government must be worried about their behavior too. That’s probably why they assigned them to this transport mission before letting them fight.

Makes enough sense. Maleficent must be here to judge if they can be trusted or not.

His actual job is to observe their attitude throughout the mission and determine how earnest the volunteers actually are. In short, deciding whether or not they can be entrusted with future missions.

In addition, we were given permission to kill any enemies attacking the supply convoy. No matter how problematic our men are, they can still serve to lure out possible ambushes.

They’ve told us so much about the mission, so I suppose Fran is also considered one of the judges? She’s not that much of a troublemaker.

We assigned the horse-drawn wagons to those who had experience driving them, and divided the rest into groups of about eight or nine to guard each one.

Our departure got a little delayed when a few insisted that they be allowed to drive, but we simply ignored them, and they reluctantly followed. As expected, they could not afford to be designated as deserters.

The speed of our convoy was incredibly slow, as the squad members paused to hunt any monsters passing nearby. Fran told them to ignore harmless, weak monsters, but they refused to listen, claiming that they needed to protect the convoy. However, this was an obvious attempt at earning a bit of cash on the side.

Since there were fewer than 100 members, we didn’t meet the conditions for March of the Valkyrie.

At the end of the first day, we only managed to reach about 60% of our expected progress by the time we had to set up camp. Now I think I can sympathize with Cruise’s hardships on the path to the Spider’s Web dungeon.

Moreover, they couldn’t even camp without causing trouble. We overheard several complaints about stuff like changing the order of night watch, hurrying up the march, or how they hated obeying a little girl. There was also an incident of someone stealing food.

Fran used her fists to forcibly silence anyone whining to her, but she was still on edge the entire night.

『Fran, you okay?』

（Why are they so annoying?）

『Well, none of them really seem like the type to follow others.』

I saw Maleficent just sitting quietly without a word. I wonder if more than half of them have already been disqualified?

To be honest, I think our biggest worry is whether or not Fran will lose her temper. If I’m not careful, she might be the one reducing the number of people in her squad.