On the way back to Zans, Erwin was going through all of his important subordinates in his mind. There were Sherry, Lanyon, and Georgina, who had followed him from the south, Chahan, Shiba, and Bracken, who he had recruited after arriving in Zans, and this newest group, consisting of Shane, Yuho, Chinba, and Mouth.

Among them, the most adept martial artists and magicians were still Sherry, Lanyon, and Georgina, the brothers who had been with him from day one. As for the likes of Shiba and Bracken, they were naturally capable warriors as well, seeing as they were mercenaries, but they required more experience on the battlefield.

Shane was very useful as a source of financial support, but Erwin was still yet to make a decision on what to do with Chinba, Yuho, and Mouth.

During the journey back to Zans, Erwin found Chinba to be quite an interesting person while conversing with Chinba and Yuho. He was very knowledgeable about Count Onen, Mackney, Duke Eru, and other important figures, and his knowledge of them included even things like their likes and dislikes, and their family trees. This was rather surprising to Erwin.

Theoretically speaking, it shouldn't have been strange for a traveling poet to be aware of all of this information pertaining to important figures. After all, the nature of their occupation involved interacting with and befriending all types of people from different demographics and socioeconomic classes. However, Chinba seemed to have compiled all of the information that he had heard, then applied his own observations to the information and arranged it all into a cohesive package that was very easy to digest.

For example, Chinba's assessment of Onen and Mackney was almost identical to that of Erwin. However, Erwin had actually met and interacted with these two in person, while Chinba hadn't. Hence, it was quite remarkable that his understanding of those two people was no less in-depth, and Erwin was very i...