Ironshore

It's been 3 days since I'm stuck in this world, the others are on a tour as the saviors of this world but I stayed back I have other things to attend to, because I have to manage Ironshore.

~2 days earlier~

"You all will rewarded of cores, but why him? He's just your servant isn't he?" Asked one of the council members, as he was pointing his fingers on me.

"No, no, no, he's our trusted ally and he deserves as much reward as we do!" said Dru, he's an asshole sometimes but he has his moments. "While we ask for riches and fame I don't think that he'll ask for much either way, he's a down to earth guy. Maybe a house and some servants" As I said, he's an asshole.

"Alright, then let it be, Matthew Lee, servant of the Heroes state your mind, where do you want to settle down, and have a House?" Another council member asked.

"Ironshore" I said firmly.

"Ahhh, Ironshore, not a bad choice, it's a free Trading town managed by the big 4. Alright you can have a house there." A third one said.

"See, I told you so, he's down to earth" said Dru happily

"Dru, you don't know him yet, wait and see." told her Hannah, who already knew what was coming.

"What??"

"Ohhh, great council, first of all I'm not a servant, I'm the ally of the 5 heroes, and secondly, I don't need a house in Ironshore, I want Ironshore, all of it." I said with a smirk.

~ Present day~

Ohhh boi, was it a shit show, in the end they let it be thanks to Hannah who said that she's gonna get Ironshore as a prize while I had to leave because I'm a mere peasant. I got 500 gold, and told to never again dare to do something like this again.

As I was thinking about this two of my most trusted men came back to me, Warrant Officer Gawain, he was a POW in the Demon Kings army, when Takumi freed them, I took them under my wings, later I found out that he was a Murrim knight despite that he was a Human, so I put him in the charge of the other horse men and he is a pretty good Leader. The other one is Warrant Officer Amauri, he's a straight forward guy, he follows common sense, not stupid orders. He was one of the first Otherworlder friends of mine, he saved me from a wyvern, then joined my squad as a private, then he climbed the ladder up from there, but he still struggles with his own ideas, so I assign him an assistant, the Third man who came with them Guard-Leader Franco, he's a good addition to my troop, he's smart, he came into the picture, when he saw that my Tactics were the best ones in the campaign against the Demon King, but whenever I made a mistake he just frowned and made a negative comment about it just loud enough so I can hear him so I can ask his idea about it. That's how he made it clear to me that he has a good mind, and he's interested in following me. He's a good friend.

"Lord Matthew, we can see Ironshore in the distance, we should hurry because it's getting dark here." told me Amauri, "He's right, it's just about 10 km (6.2 miles) left, if we hurry, we'll be there at dawn." Agreed Gawain.

"There's no need to hurry guys, I know that you're eager to get there, but it's not just us, the troops and the horses need to rest, and I'm not even talking about the other Heroes's company, they aren't used to long marches, don't even talk about doing it at night." I said, I understood them, even I wanted to be there, but that doesn't help that the other 5 left most of their companions and their families to me, because they're touring and getting their fame someone has to take care of them...

"Franco, Gawain, take some men and make a perimeter, Amauri set up camp, and send out 20 men to hunt something" I told them, they did not wasted time, they knew what to do so they left to do their work. Then I looked at my latest addition in my troop, Dan Stringer.

"Dan, go and ask Gawain for 3 horse men, and go to Ironshore, announce our arrival, and hand them the councils degree. I don't want to look like a hostile army to them." I told him as while handing him the degree.

"Sir Matthew, why are you trusting me with this task? Isn't it a nobles task?" He asked interestedly.

"You are small, so the horse doesn't get tired when you ride on it, and you seem eager to do something." I said with it with biggest smile possible.

"Right on it Sir!" He waved a good bye and left.

"Alright, then guess I look for some food..." I turned my horse towards the auxiliary units carts, they weren't really an auxiliary unit, they didn't fought once since they joined my core, so I haven't really paid them, it was the troops, 3 years before, when my core started to get a shape of a Company and not just a ragtag bandit group, a merchant showed up, and asked for escort, so agreed, after that mission, they choose to stay with us. After a while when they became a part of us, the troops all started to take some of their payment, so I just increased it, just so they got the same money. It's a weird system, but if it works it works.

"Sir Matthew, how can I help you?" The Head Merchant asked with a huge grin on her face.

"Miss Keller, do you know anything interesting about Ironshore?" Well, it's never to late to know as much as you can.

"Sir Matthew, Kathleen is just enough, or rather, Kathy" She said with the most seductive voice she could use. "Then you can call me Mat." I told her, without any emotion, it gets harder every time, but its a fun game we always do. If you are friends for 3 years... where is Han by the way, have they reached the Adrana's Empire of the elves, or are they still at the Oupton territory, of the Beastkin?

"Alright Mat, what do you want to know?" She asked. "Everything useful."

"Well it's a free town, which is famous because of it's trading, but you know that already, it's in the alliance of the free traders, but it's still the smallest one of those." Yes, I already know this, it's just like the Hanseatic alliance from Europe, but this is not the thing why I choose this town. "It has a big harbor never freezing harbor to the Northern lakes, and it's close to all of the major countries." This is why, all year round trade, close to the biggest buyers, and weirdly, non of the major countries annexed it. Is it out of the interest zone?

"You're thinking Mat, I can see it on your face, what is it? My sizes? My interest in Men? Or is it the city?" Kathy asked, then I just showed her three of my fingers. "You are lame, the answer is easy, it doesn't get swollen because it doesn't worth it, it's to small, if Athrax comes for it, the Ouptonians will attack, if Adrana's Empire want it the Murrim steps in the picture. Ironshore just doesn't worth a war. It's the best place to stay in the millennia, and you just got your hands on it." She explained. That's it, it's too much to pay for it's worth, I couldn't get around my head, because I didn't dealt with this much politics yet here.

"Thanks Kathy, by the way, do you have any food on you?" "Ha ha ha, yeah, I have, want some?" "I would not ask for it if I weren't." As I sat down to eat, the night just flew over our head.

I got a REAL bad headache in the morning, as I got up a friendly face welcomed me.

"Good morning Sleepy head, it's time for breakfast!" Yep, a super annoying Hannah was in front of me, holding some oatmeal in her hands.

"Hey Han, what are you doing here?" I asked as I took one of the bowls "Just passing by, we still need to go to Oupton, the stupid Council forced us to stay and Party, party, party. F*** them, they don't even have a good Cocktail, and they say it's a party." She went on with her problems. "How bad, where are the others?" I knew if she's here, the others are as well "They are seeing their companions, they couldn't believe that you could take a good care of them, but I heard that you only stopped here because of them, how nice of you." She acted while eating. "Shut it, will you lot come to Ironshore or just going on the roads?" I asked as I finished my meal. "Roads, it's faster, and by the way, you could invite me once as well." She said as she got up and stopped by the opening of the tent, I could swear to God that I saw some tears coming down on her cheeks. "Don't do anything stupid until I come back, or the city is gonna be truly mine."

"Ye-yeah, if you say so... should I walk you out of camp, and talk a bit more?" I offered her. "No, please not now, Gawain already asked so, I don't wanna ruin his day" She smiled at me.

"Ok" Reminder for self, torture Gawain.

As the 5 heroes left we did so to, with some delay, because of the braking of the camp, after that it was just some calm riding, nothing happened on our journey so far so I let the troops hunt, because the party from last night had some great loot. Other than that, an axle broke which was fixed quickly, and we soon arrived, in my precious little port town: Ironshore.