I just wanted to pop in here, in my own defence, and say that I'm not actually trying to set our heroines up for failure... though picking the first group of mercenaries may be a foolish choice.  But Daria figures the stakes are extremely low, and is happy to assume the best, to give them the benefit of the doubt, especially since he did say nice things, sort of, about his previous employer.  If any of that is correct.  But she just figured he sounded funny, and it's a game, so... why not?  Worst case, they fire them again.  And Paco's paying.  :-)