Early the next morning, Kuru took Fang Zheng and Kurumi to meet up with Katie at the city gate. After a brief exchange and confirming their respective duties, they set off.
However, Fang Zheng frowned slightly as he looked at the caravan before them.
Katie had not lied. Aside from the carriage Katie rode in, the caravan had three flatbed wagons carrying goods. Fang Zheng examined them carefully and found nothing unusual about the cargo; they were merely ordinary goods. Of course, they were certainly valuable, and that was precisely where the problem lay...
Based on Fang Zheng's past experience working with the Northern Merchants Guild, merchant guilds generally had their own guards. Hiring mercenaries was largely meant to fill in the gaps.
Simply put, their lower-tier combat strength was sufficient, but they needed to hire a few high-level fighters to keep things under control.
Naturally, no one expected to hire a Legendary, but qualified regular mercenaries were enough to serve as a deterrent. After all, ordinary bandits and thieves could only be so strong. At most, they might reach the elite level. If they advanced to the master level, they could easily find a well-paid, respectable job anywhere. There was no need to pursue such a dead-end career as banditry.
Even an ordinary elite-class professional could become a noble's guard. Unless there was some hidden reason, who would choose to become a Bandit?
For that reason, a group of ordinary guards along with a few regular mercenaries was normally enough to ensure a caravan's safety along the way.
But Katie's caravan was different. They had no guards of their own at all. Including Katie, there were only five people: four drivers and her. Moreover, all four drivers were fairly old and did not appear to have any fighting ability.