Over the course of the two weeks, some things changed. First of all, Lily and Alexander informed to those who knew them that Lily was expecting a child, so they didn't have to keep it a secret anymore. As for another change was the fact that Billy received eight gold coins from the dungeon town, he didn't do anything yet, but he was already being paid. He also had to name his party since it would become the name of the guild as well and thus the name of the dungeon town.
Although Billy had the mind of a man in his thirties, only silly names came to mind. Justice League, Avengers, Akatsuki… He was too old to choose one of those, so he began to think hard about it. Unfortunately, the guilds need to have flashy names, and Jean even had the nerve to vet some of the names Billy picked. After much discussion, they decided that Vanguard was good enough. It was simple but strong, and Billy truly was in the vanguard in many fields, just like his friends.
In any case, now that he had another stable source of income, Billy had to use it wisely to avoid unpleasant surprises in the future. His first idea was to have his own network of spies, but that was something that would need to be developed.
"Instead of raising them for the state and being paid to do so, I should look for students and make them work for me as I train them," Billy thought.
The only problem was the fact that Billy thought that it was too much of a pain, and he was bound to end up finding some troublesome individuals that would betray him. There was even a chance the enemies might send some of their own to infiltrate and learn more about him and his techniques. The number of things that could go wrong was quite high… Billy hated to admit it, but to avoid that kind of hassle, he might have to end up accepting Jean and Edward's offer and take their place. Jean's offer probably was no longer up since he got married, though.
"Even that would restrain me too much, so I guess I need to find a better alternative…" Billy thought.
While Billy was thinking about that, he decided to have a change of pace and go with his wives to the training grounds where they would meet their new apprentices. The ones who survived had plenty of experience now, thanks to the war, so they had been assigned to many posts. Most of them were on the eastern side of the state, where they could help their friends.
Regardless, Billy knew that the number of apprentices would increase since Aura would send some kids of her state, but he still frowned when he saw. More than three thousand of them. She had sent five hundred to join the five groups, and this time, only two hundred from Hiloh state joined each group. It was quite the number…
"If these many people join the ranks of the army of this state, then perhaps they can truly make a good and powerful alliance," Billy thought.
Although Billy decided to see everyone training to get some ideas, his friends only spent the day talking with the students and telling them what kind of things they were going to learn and what they were going to do. Training while helping the state was one of them, building walls, towers, traps… they would do all that while they improve their skills.
Seeing others making progress while he wasn't doing anything wasn't good for Billy's confidence, so he didn't come to check things on the training grounds the other day. Still, his friends showed up with Kate and Natalie after the second day with the new students.
"Hey, Billy," Alexander said. "We have been thinking…"
"A truly dangerous pastime…" Billy interrupted.
"Once we head north, can we use the dungeon to train the new students?" Alexander asked. "We improved our skills quite a bit while we were clearing dungeons."
"By all means, use freely and make me rich," Billy replied. "Some adventurers use that place, but their numbers are small since they are the survivors of the last war. Others might want to work for my guild and explore the dungeon since it is a medium-level one, but I can slow down on the process of accepting them."
"Is that a good idea?" Kate asked.
"I think it is since most of the guys who want to come to that town now were people that avoided going after the war, they are cowards, and I don't have to let them use my dungeon," Billy explained.
"I suppose that is true…" Kate said.
While having more members associated with their guilds would benefit them more, Billy didn't have didn't worry about that. His friends and wives were members of his guild, and with their many students, there would be no shortage of people wanting to use his dungeon. After so many wars, probably many kids will want to join the army since they lost their parents, at least one of them in those conflicts. So, there will be no shortage of soldiers and adventurers for the next few years now that the competition is gone.
In any case, after a few days, Billy noticed that his wives were returning pretty tired. As expected, looking after so many people and training them was a little overwhelming. When Billy asked them if they wanted some help, he heard something unexpected.
"It isn't that work. It is just that some kids are a bit troubling," Kate said.
"Some of them are sons and daughters of rich people from the states of this area, so they are a bit spoiled, and since they aren't making progress, they keep causing trouble," Natalie added.
"Isn't that normal?" Billy asked.. "I am guessing that you guys had a lot of luck with the first group. In any case, why don't you go all out a little bit and show what you can do?"
