Starting with the sentries on the frontier

Chapter 3 Reasonable Service Fees

The next morning, a series of urgent knocks woke Zhag up.

"Sentry! I need your help!"

Zag hurriedly put on his vest and leather pants before opening the door, yawning.

"I'm sorry to wake you so early, but it's an emergency."

Standing at the door was a woman dressed in luxurious clothes. She wore an orange-yellow velvet imperial gown and a snow-white fur vest of indistinct material draped over her shoulders, adorned with an exquisite amethyst brooch.

Furthermore, she looked genuinely anxious: "The grain convoy was attacked not far from the bridge, and a whole cart of grain rolled into the river. Some people risked their lives to run to town for help, and we need to send people to rescue them immediately!"

Zag was completely confused: "Then you should go find the guards, not me, the sentry."

The woman quickly added, "No, no, no, the one who attacked the convoy was a hawk-winged hag! The guards can't handle it!"

The sleepy-eyed Snowball stumbled onto Zag's shoulder, stretched lazily in a pose reminiscent of a circus acrobat, and then grumbled, "This is somewhat original; at least they came up with a real magical creature as an excuse. Hopefully, there really is a hawk-winged hag there!"

Zag wanted to ask Snowball what she meant, but seeing the woman's urgency, he could only turn around, take two pieces of paper from the drawer, dip his quill in the ink from the ink bottle, and say, "Alright, alright, an eagle-winged hag, a level three incident, at least 400 shillings, but I can't guarantee that an investigator will be there to help immediately. I doubt many people are up at this hour..."

The woman, already prepared, pulled out a wad of coins: "Here's 25 gold pounds... a full 500 shillings! Please hurry! The grain bank's losses this time are enormous, sentry!"

I will try my best.

Even though Zag considered himself to be quite knowledgeable, he was almost blinded by the sight of those glittering gold coins.

He sighed inwardly, "The grain store is indeed rich," and then quickly began writing a notice on a piece of paper, while carefully making a file for the woman.

Unfortunately, Snowball kept talking in his ear: "Actually, you could have kept the 5 gold pounds, since a level 3 event only requires 400 shillings!"

"That's five gold pounds! Enough for us to buy more dried fish than we can ever eat!"

"And this is completely in accordance with the regulations!"

"Do you know why the bounty amount doesn't need to be filled in the file? It's so that you can legitimately take a cut!"

"5 gold pounds! 100 shillings! That's enough to buy 8 bottles of potion and still have some left over!"

"Haven't you always wanted to try that smoked ham hanging outside the slaughterhouse? Five gold pounds is enough to buy five smoked hams!"

"Hey! Hey! Are you even listening to me, Zhag! Feed—"

Zag was so annoyed by the noise that the veins on his forehead bulged. Finally, when the woman from the grain store wasn't paying attention, he reached out and shoved Snowball on the table, manually muted his microphone, and gave him a couple of hard pats.

After quickly finishing the file, Zag showed it to the woman, and only after confirming that there were no problems and she signed it did he see her out.

But when they reached the door, he hesitated for a moment, then called out to the other person, saying, "Because your request is urgent, I need to charge a service fee of 10 shillings. Um... you know, finding a suitable investigator for you at this time isn't easy..."

The woman frowned slightly at first, but quickly counted out ten shillings from her purse, saying, "Ten shillings? No problem! Just please hurry!"

Zag breathed a sigh of relief: "I will. Good luck, beautiful lady."

After the woman left, Snowball's constant cursing and swearing became exceptionally clear—

"You rude Modo!"

"Insolent! Shameful! Despicable! Foolish! Tyrant!"

"Pretentious! Hypocritical! You could have just listened to the great Snowball's advice and taken the 5 gold pounds directly! Instead, you openly solicited a bribe! And it was only 10 shillings!"

"Coward! Fool!"

Zha Ge snapped irritably, "Enough! If you keep scolding me, I won't give you a single dried fish all day!"

He paused, then added, "Besides, this isn't bribery; I'm reasonably asking her to pay my service fee! Now I need to find a few investigators who can handle this case! This is extra work I've done, so of course I'm entitled to an extra service fee!"

Snowball burst into laughter: "Hahahaha! Who are you trying to fool? Are you a follower of the god of deceit?!"

"What do you know, you talking harpy?!"

Enraged, Zag slammed the door shut behind him, grabbed the brand-new files, and left the sentry hut, ignoring Snowball's taunts, before heading towards the town's only tavern.

"25 gold pounds? Did I hear that right?!"

The tavern owner was named Felix, a bald, middle-aged man with a beer belly and an ever-present oily sheen on his face, but he was a very kind-hearted person.

He was shocked when he heard about the bounty Zag mentioned: "That's no small sum! A full 500 shillings! And it's just a level three incident? Really?"

Zag nodded: "Of course it's true, but the reason the bounty is so high is because this incident is extremely urgent, and we need the investigators to go right now. Hmm, a hawk-winged hag attacked the grain convoy, just south of the bridge, not far away."

"I'm serious, buddy, you've come to the right place! I happen to have two investigators staying here today! There are only a handful in the whole town! You wait, I'll handle this!"

As he spoke, he patted his chest, cleared his throat, and then shouted in the hall, "Wake up, investigators! Emergency! Level 3 only, but with a bounty of 500 shillings! First come, first served! Wake up, investigators!"

After saying that, fearing that his shouts weren't loud enough, he picked up the call bell on the table and shook it wildly, then banged it on the table.

"Wake up! Everyone, wake up!"

Soon, the first to emerge from the room was a mage whose face, already pale, appeared even more ashen from being woken up.

The reason Zag was able to confirm that the other party was a mage was mainly because his bright, dark blue robe and pointed hat were impossible to ignore, especially since he had a golden badge pinned to his chest: Lonely Tower Mage Association.

His dark blue robe accentuated his gloomy demeanor, making him appear unapproachable, perfectly fitting the stereotypical image of a mage.

Then, a man with a red beard came out of another room.

"What are you yelling about! I'm going to shove your head up a horse's ass and let you yell to your heart's content!"

The bearded man was cursing and swearing, his expression very unpleasant.

"Hehe, I'm really sorry, but there's a big deal here!" Felix poured four glasses of beer, pushing three of them to the three people present except himself, keeping the last one for himself, while explaining with a forced smile, "A pretty big deal! Hmm, let the Sentinel explain it to you!"

Then, all three pairs of eyes turned to Zhag.

Zag took the beer and nodded, replying, "Indeed, it's a Level 3 incident. The grain convoy was attacked by a hawk-winged hag south of the bridge outside town and urgently requested assistance, so they offered a reward of 500 shillings. Who among you can handle it?"

The bearded man was initially tempted, but then frowned and said, "Hmph, I'm only level two. I'm going back to sleep!"

"Wait," the mage beside him immediately called out, "I can take half; I'm also level two."

The bearded man glared and retorted, "Are you crazy?! That's the Eagle-Winged Hag! Even a Level 3 Investigator needs a lot of experience to handle her!"

The mage analyzed, "The people in the grain store are all ordinary people, yet they managed to hold out until someone returned with news and issued a request. Clearly, it's either a young eagle-winged hag or an old eagle-winged hag that's about to die. As long as you can hold out a few more times, I'll have enough time to chant my magic and then take care of it."

"Or is the silver shield you were polishing endlessly yesterday just for show?"

Hearing his strength questioned, the bearded man's face flushed red with anger, and he snorted, "What nonsense are you spouting! I'm a genuine Seastone Legion warrior!"

"Then let's split it in half and set off now."

"Let's go!"

With that, the bearded man started to walk out.

Zag hurriedly called out, "Wait a minute, sign the files before you leave!"

The bearded man stumbled from being called, turned, and returned to the bar. The mage rolled his eyes and muttered, "Hmph! I almost forgot!"

Unfortunately, the mage's sharp tongue didn't spare the other party: "You forgot to take your precious silver shield? What, trying to fight the Eagle-Winged Witch empty-handed?"

"you--"

"Alright, alright, why are you so angry so early in the morning!"

Seeing that things were about to get out of control, Felix quickly tried to smooth things over: "I know the Master didn't sleep well last night and is a bit grumpy in the morning, that's normal, but we all have to work together after all, so let's try to understand each other..."

"Oh, right! I've saved these two glasses of wine for you two, so you can celebrate when you get back!"

After those auspicious words, the bearded man managed to suppress his temper and turned to go to his room to retrieve his silver shield. The mage didn't say anything more unpleasant, and for a moment, the atmosphere in the tavern was reasonably harmonious.

Zag expressed his sincere admiration for Felix: "Amazing!"

"Hey, I see all sorts of people coming and going every day. A friendly atmosphere brings good business!" Felix chuckled and pulled a bottle of ink and a quill pen from under the counter. "Here, I bet you were in such a hurry you forgot these!"

"This has been a huge help!"

Zag nodded gratefully.

————————————Divider Line————————————

[Dawn Magic Encyclopedia]: The Eagle-Winged Hag is a humanoid magical creature with eagle-like wings, sharp claws, and a long beak. It exhibits distinctly female characteristics, possesses extremely low intelligence, and generally has little desire to attack. No male Eagle-Winged Hags have been discovered to date. Due to its ability to create magical hurricanes equivalent to apprentice-level spells, it is classified as a Level 3 dangerous magical creature.