The man with a tired expression opened up the bag and saw the four heads inside it.
"Four bandits. I will have to take a closer look and check our records to see if they can be identified."
"We will of course also check their belongings and ask a few questions to find out what exactly happened."
Osric nodded.
"Understood."
The mercenary guild clerk asked something this time.
"Are you registered mercenaries? I haven't seen you before."
Since William was still a little out of it, Osric did all the talking.
"No we aren't. Is that important?"
"Well, if you want to get the full bounty, then yes."
Osric sighed and asked.
"Alright. How do we register?"
"Name, place of residence, and twenty copper to get an F-Rank mercenary badge."
Osric was kind of relieved.
'This is somewhat easier than at the adventurers guild.'
After answering some questions about what happened with the bandits, like how they encountered them and how they killed them, Osric and William both did as required and received their F-Rank mercenary badges.
"Thanks. So what now?"
The clerk answered.
"Now I will hand the bag with the evidence to our investigators at the back to confirm whether everything checks out and then you can receive your reward."
He then asked them to sit at a nearby table to wait.
Osric and William sighed and walked towards an empty table.
'Apparently we have to wait 15 minutes to an hour. What a drag.'
William decided to speak up for the first time in a while.
"Osric, how much do you think we'll get?"
After some thinking and something catching his eye, Osric answered.
"Hm? Look there."
"There is a bounty board next to the counter."
"Oh yeah. What does it say?" William asked.
"It says an unknown bandit head gets you 40-70 copper depending on what weapon they use and how strong their bodies look."
"An identified bandit head gets you 1-3 silver."
"A known criminal or gang member gets you 3-8 silver."
"And lastly, a major gang leader or high-value criminal can get you a minimum of 10 silver and sometimes over 20."
Both Osric and William were shocked, but only William expressed it out loud.
"What the fuck?!"
"Some random bandit pays more than an E-Rank monster mission that could easily kill you if you're alone?"
William was quite upset.
"How is that fair? Do adventurers even know about this?"
Osric sighed and answered calmly.
"What did you expect?"
"Mercenaries work for the Baron. We don't."
"Franklin is probably barely keeping the guild together with the money House Greydell puts into it."
"He gives the mercenary guild so much money because he can use them as his personal little army."
Osric looked slightly annoyed after having been reminded of Ashbrook's situation.
William frowned deeply.
"Disgusting. I seriously hate that—"
Osric covered William's mouth and looked extremely serious as he whispered.
"Watch it. Be careful of what you say out loud in public."
"You can't let emotions get the better of you."
William breathed in deeply and somewhat calmed down.
"You're right. Thanks Osric."
"Don't worry about it. Just be more careful from now on."
"Got it."
After about half an hour of waiting, the mercenary guild clerk finally called for them.
"We have confirmed that they are bandits and your story checks out."
Osric and William just nodded.
"Also, we could identify the one you guys suspected was their leader. He was a known bandit with a bounty of 1 silver."
"The other three are unknown and we decided on their bounties based on how dangerous we deemed them."
"One gets you 45 copper, the second 55 copper, and the last one 63 copper."
"So a total of 1 silver and 163 copper. You will also get their belongings back."
Osric nodded, thanked him, picked up the pouch, and turned around.
William was surprised again by the generous rewards and followed Osric.
This time they received more reactions than when they first entered.
The mercenaries who overheard their conversations with the guild clerk were surprised that those two young and inexperienced men could kill four bandits and started whispering to each other.
When they left the mercenary guild and walked down the streets, William agreed that Osric should get 1 silver and him 63 copper, which was slightly above 60% for Osric.
Both of them were exhausted from everything that happened today.
"So much happened in a single day. I think I will head home to my grandparents and hug them before going to sleep."
Osric chuckled faintly.
"Yeah. You should do that."
"But don't see today as a bad experience. We have both grown a lot in a single day and will continue to do so as a party."
William smiled.
"You're right. Thanks for not letting me break down. And I will forever be grateful that you had my back."
They shook hands after agreeing to meet up again tomorrow and went their separate ways on this cold evening.
After Osric arrived at the inn and ate, he laid down on his bed in the small room.
'What an exhausting day.'
The experience of killing a human being was not something you could get over.
But Osric understood that this hardened him and it was part of the path he chose to take.
'Let's look at my system challenge rewards before going to sleep.'
The now familiar blue screen appeared in his mind's eye.