They made no moves to hide their movement, besides this was a plea for help, it was not as though they were doing something wrong to them, when suddenly the Town Warden walked out to the mob and past them ahead to the dock where the market ship would arrive in a few seconds.
The guards at the dock and at the gate watched him pass without stopping him but rather gave way but not for the mob and now instead of the guard being the first line of security he was.
He stood still and unmoved as he watched the ship approach slowly until it anchored and the ladder was drawn to the platform where he stood, however no one moved forward until a certain lady came out of the ship.
She wore a look of a shagged middle aged lady with tattered short hair and brown eyes dressed truly as a seafarer in thick clothes and stunk repulsively of some sort of fishy smell.
"Simeon, I did not deem my welcome so important for you to personally come greet me" she said to the town warden who was only shy of being called an elderly man.
"i did not come to greet you, as a matter of fact, I am the last person you'd normally see here, however the situation demanded me so"
"Oh, okay, then we can talk inside…she said but did not see him make any move of following her either into the town or the ship.
"...Get to the point then, my feet is already hurting" she said seeing his demeanour
"might you spare us a few of your acquaintances to help clear an obstacle affecting the farmers?" he asked
"put it up for the mercenaries Simeon, I don't do charity"
"well neither do they, you should know the farmers have neither the money nor ability to afford their immediate services"
"They are not my concern Simeon"
"I beg to differ, your customers are the mercenaries and relatively anyone who can afford your services, however strictly speaking, your business is only made possible because of the goodwill they extend towards you, so by all means and responsibility, you are obligated to offer assistance to the town when in crisis, not only when there's profit Miranda"
A second passed with both of them staring at each other.
"is that all?" she asked
"yes, otherwise I am permitted to…"
"i hear you, I hear you, just let them pass, ill send someone to you after this is done…"
"I appreciate the help" Simeon said turning his back to leave when she interrupted
"...however, I am still taking the reward offered up at the mercenary hall"
"i wouldn't have it any other way" he replied and left the dock walking past the crowd and every other person present.
Miranda on the other hand seemed to not be too happy about this but only scratched her head even more making it more tattered
Immediately after that was the signal that the market ship could officially take base at the dock for now and following that was a scene of people leaving and entering the ship for their own reasons.
It did not take long for the town to return to its usual self on the surface as the farmers immediately dispersed and the town warden was gone.
Soon it was evening time and in a town of magic and mana, it was not difficult to see the beauty of its creativity, especially around the town-square where the mercenary hall, and other prominent trades were, the part that shown the brightest seemed to be coming near the shore and the parts that shown the least seem to be on the outskirts of the town, on the other end where a massive expanse of land stood once, now it was just swamp.
Two men walked into the mercenary hall dressed in sea clothing showing their ties with the market ship lady Miranda.
The mercenary hall was quite spacious like a bar with most of its space given to the mercenaries on this ground floor to drink and drown away In rumors.
Directly opposite the entrance on the other end is a front desk, although it was not on the front, it was so for various reasons and experiences.
The front desk was more like a bartenders table spanning long and wide with multiple people behind it.
To the right end of the front desk was a staircase leading to higher floors, though the building was only two storey high.
And to the left was a mission board which was most of the times occupied with a lot of people as they needed to take on different types of missions to be able to earn.
The both men walked into the hall knowingly earning only passing gazes from from drunken mercenaries, they stared around eventually reaching the front desk where a young guy, a young lady and an elderly man were the ones serving and receiving missions as the workers of the front desk, the elderly man calmly placed a paper in front of them on the table knowingly.
"we were informed of your coming so we had to take down the mission in advance for you, wouldn't want complications" the elderly man said
Both men nodded and skimmed through the paper before looking at the elderly man with open palms.
The young man beside the elderly man serving immediately interjected.
"we don't work that way sir, payments are made after confirmation of the mission"
"give it to them James, just this once" the elderly man said.
James was surprised at the statement and he looked at the elderly man with shocked eyes, and then at the two fellows with curious eyes.
He then calmly took the mission paper from them and suddenly brought out ten seed like crystals, none up to the size of a pinky, only less and they all looked equal sized.
He handed it to them and they walked away.
At some point in the hall, everyone had gone quiet looking at this exchange in surprise
When a slightly hunched back man walked to the front desk and said
"i am submitting this mission, you don't mind giving me my pay in advance…"
"...Bite me! Whispers" the young man yelled back causing the whole hall to echo in laughter.
"i'll skin you alive one day kid"
"talk when you're not drunk, are you sure you want to take this mission, you know there are fees for failure to complete it right?"
"I am not drunk, now approve it so I don't have to see your smug breath again"
The hall echoed in another laughter and gossip again.
Some hours later into the night, the two men who had accepted the mission for the farmers had navigated their way through the town and to the outskirts of it which could be considered the village as this was where most of the farmers lived.
They could have easily gone to the crash-site to directly solve the problem but regardless of how they looked they choose to get the overall image first since they already knew the gist of it.
This led them to take a meaningless long stroll around the outskirts of the town.
The town guards had approached them as they looked suspicious but only a show of their identification badge was credible enough for now.
Soon it was dawn and some woke up to their own hustle in the town while others woke up to their problems.
This time the farmers did not need to act, the men had taken up a mission with the mercenary hall in the town and while they looked suspicious, everyone around knew they were with the lady Miranda and that was credible enough at first.
Except it was dawn and there was no progress on the flooding issue.
James was now furious as he was just short of reporting this to the mercenary guild leader to call them in for questioning or worse put up a bounty for them.
The elderly man on the other hand seemed relaxed and unbothered and this made him panic more.
He had already begun to reason many things starting from how he might as well lose his job he just got not up to a month ago or how his salary might be deducted for this blemish he made, he was not yet an adventurer, he was working towards it, at the age of 20, and he doubted the elderly man beside him would put out a word for him if he was to be blamed.
Worse of all was he could not do shit outside this hall, all his confidence came from the mercenary hall rule that covered everyone under its roof.
His thoughts were so scrambled he was distracted from his duty today he didn't notice the people causing him fear were being attended to by the elderly man as they came to report their reason for the delay.