Dark Fate, Chapter 216

Chapter 216 – Guild Business

“Ah, your Majesty,” said Guildmaster Luo Fen as I entered the Ceres Adventurers Guild. “I was wondering when you’d come around. The diviners have finished tracking the guy in Russia that you put in a request for.”

It had been a few days since I’d put in the request (and also ascended to Tier 3). Most people were still surprised by my new look, whenever I walked around, and the subconscious aura I projected. Not one of the auras from my skills, though the passive ones were active, obviously. No, this was more of an undefinable aura of power. Came with being two whole tiers above most of them. The effects depended on who I was talking to, and what their relation to me was, but for most of the citizens it basically gave them a feeling of awe.

The Guildmaster, however, was clearly not impressed. Then again, as an Exorcist she had skills that specifically gave her protection from mental and spiritual effects. They were a necessary part of defending oneself against spiritual entities and parasites that fed on souls, amongst other things. That had the added benefit of making her all but immune to the aura of power surrounding me.

Which was fortunate, because I truly enjoyed having her as one of the few people on Ceres who was not only willing to talk back to me to my face, but was completely unafraid and unapologetic about it. Having someone like that as the head of the Ceres Adventurers Guild was a boon, in more ways than one. Someone willing to actually stand up to me and tell me to my face that I was full of shit was a good and healthy thing for any ruler. The person being willing to do that in public, and my allowing it, also was a healthy thing for the nation. While having slander out there was not something I allowed, if people wanted to badmouth me using the truth, I was all too happy to allow it.

There was a simple reason for that, obviously. When I made a show of cracking down on people who spread lies, forcing them to either repeat those lies while under a System Contract to only speak the truth or publicly denounce themselves, and let people who simply criticized my actions or expressed opinions about my morals, that set a tone. The people who were going to be against me with my Kingdom, and now my Empire, would rail against me either way. Showing them that I would allow any ‘disrespect’, so long as it was the truth? That was like a PR version of the Black Zones, channeling their discontent into something that wouldn’t be a problem for the rest of my domain.

While I personally argued that was the greatest benefit of having a Guildmaster like Luo Fen, I couldn’t ignore the benefit of having someone in the job who was fiercely determined to have the Guild be independent from the state. Basically, I never had to worry about managing the Guild or the kind of nonsense that adventurers could get up to. Luo Fen was proactive on jumping on all of that, thereby giving ample evidence why the Guild should remain independent.

“That is good to hear, Guildmistress,” I said, as I took the offered USB stick, and turned over the rest of the Guild’s payment. “Fortunately, some of the people in my employ have people that they know in Russia, who can make use of that information, now that we have it. But that isn’t the only reason I came by, today.”

The Guildmistress frowned, clearly not happy that I wasn’t leaving, now that I’d paid for the service I’d contracted. “And just what might that be? Another request?”

By this point, everyone in the Guild hall was watching us, and listening in. Not surprising, since I almost never came to the Guild in an official capacity, and never in my true form. I decided to lean into that, and give them a show. When I spoke, I projected slightly, so that everyone could hear me, without my yelling or pushing magic into my voice.

“No, not as such. As you know, the Kingdom is expanding to an Empire. With it, the Ceresan Adventurers Guild must expand. Every territory will have their own regional and local branches, coordinating together with the Imperial guild as a whole. Eventually, I want the Imperial guild to be able to produce identification cards robust enough that they can be used as legal IDs no matter where in the Empire one goes.

“But the Imperial Adventurers Guild must have leadership, and guidance, if it is to remain an independent organization, and not a branch of the State. Because, under your leadership, the Ceresan Adventurers Guild has proven itself, and shown why an independent Guild is important both for the adventurers and the Kingdom as a whole, I, Emperor Zayn Greene, request that Guildmaster Luo Fen appoints a successor to take her place in the Ceresan Adventurers Guild, and takes up the office of Grandmaster in the Imperial Adventurers Guild, to ensure that all the adventurers in the Empire are afforded the same protections and opportunities as you have ensured that those here on Ceres have.”

Whatever Luo had been expecting, it certainly wasn’t that. I had the distinct pleasure of watching the normally unflappable Guildmaster go slightly slackjawed as she stood in front of me, her head craned back to look me in the eye. At 2.5 meters tall, I was more than twice the halfling’s height of 0.93 meters. The woman was not even eye-level to my crotch, but I knew from experience that she had a presence that made her seem my height, at least. And I had managed to stun her with words alone, not using any powers, skills, or spells to do it.

The silence was broken first by a clap from one of the adventurers, and then another. Someone cheered, and it was like the dam burst. Applause, cheers, and well-wishes came from all the adventurers in the guild hall. The Guildmaster was popular with the members of the Guild, because she was a hands-on leader and stuck with her people, rather than doing the corporate manager routine of letting customers walk all over staff out of fear of a bad review. Knowing their leader had their back was always a boost to morale, no matter the setting.

The cheers were enough to jumpstart her brain again. Luo Fen looked up at me, her eyes narrowing dangerously. “Really? Doing that in front of everyone? You could have just sent a message for something like that.”

“Yes, I could have,” I grinned back at her, unapologetic. “However, doing it like this shows the Guild how much I value their independence and the way you’ve been running things. And it made sure you knew how much your people support you. But that isn’t the main reason I did it this way.”

“Oh,” she said, challengingly, “and what was the main reason?”

“Because if I asked you to take up the job in private, you would have said no. Now, however? Do you really want to disappoint all your subordinates who are so happy for you to have this honor, this recognition of your efforts?”

Luo took a long breath, held it for a five count, and then slowly let it out, visibly calming herself before she said something she would probably regret. “You’re a bastard, you know that, right? Biàn tài huài dàn.” She practically spat the last part out, clearly upset with how I had played her against her people.

Turning her back to me, she looked out at the adventurers who were crowding around us. They were all looking at her, expectantly. The ones that could see her, at least. I saw her shoulders sigh as she realized what she needed to do, even though I knew she hated doing things that called attention to her lack of height.

Jumping up onto the counter, she looked out over the crowd. “Right then. Guess we’re going to be making a change or two around here. Carlo, front and center!”

Matilde Carlo

Human Female

Level 22 Urban Druid / Scholar

Titles: Wise One

Attributes: 30 STR, 50 DEX, 30 CON, 60 INT, 80 WIS, 20 CHA

Market Value: 134,000 gp

One of the women in the crowd stepped forward, wearing what looked like a getup straight out of a cyberpunk-fantasy mashup. Leather longcoat with some neon highlights, protective vest underneath, and goggles on her head, with a hockey stick that I could see was enchanted to act as a caster’s staff. Urban Druid was an interesting specialization of the Druid class, treating the cities as just another environment, like how a normal druid took to forests and the like. Within a city that they claimed as their home, they could display power far above what their level suggested.

Luo Fen took a breath, and said, “So, as you all heard, looks like I’m getting tapped to run the Imperial Guild, and make sure it runs like we’ve gotten the Ceres Guild to work. So, that means you’re going to have to step up and be the new Guildmaster for Ceres. You’ve been my second in command for a while, now, so I know you can do it.”

She glanced daggers at me, before turning her attention back to her subordinate. “Remember what we set out to do when we started this guild, and what it stands for. We’re here to ensure the Adventurers don’t get taken advantage of by unscrupulous assholes, even if they happen to be Emperor. But we also don’t allow any adventurers to abuse the staff, just because they have a bit of power. We protect our own, starting with the clerks and people who do the business of running this place. If someone doesn’t like that, then they can solve their monster problems or resource gathering issues themselves!”

She turned to look at the rest of the adventurers in the hall, glaring at each and every one of them in turn. “And the same goes for you lot, as well! Don’t think that me being ‘promoted’ means that you can just walk all over the people at the counters just because I won’t be there to take my mace to your kneecaps! Guildmaster Carlo knows how to run this place as well as I do, and she’s been telling me that I’ve been too lenient with some of you for only going after your knees. So, take care, or she’ll be doing things with that stick of hers that you definitely won’t like. Except you, Matthews. We know you’re a freak like that.”

That got a round of laughs, as she knew it would, as one man called out, a generic ‘fuck you, too’, which Luo responded to with a cheeky, “In your dreams, Matthews.” Naturally, there was some good-natured ribbing all around. This kind of attitude was why she’d been so successful in leading the Guild. The type of people who became adventurers weren’t the type that would do well in a modern office with those kinds of rules and expectations, and the type of people who came to Ceres were wilder still, by design.

“Excellent,” I chuckled. “Now that all that is settled, I’ll leave you so that Grandmaster Luo and Guildmaster Carlo can get to work organizing things and seeing to all the transitions that need to happen. If anyone asks, I’m going to go talk to some Russians, to see if they can arrange an ‘introduction’ to the people responsible for that Giant Kraken attack.”

I wasn’t worried about my plans getting out to the public. Anyone with a functioning brain knew that I was going to be hunting the people responsible for the attack, and that my retribution was not going to be limited to merely slapping a trade ban prohibiting Russian vessels and goods from passing through Ceresan territory. The hunt was going to be half the fun of this endeavor, and like any good hunt, you needed to smoke the prey out, forcing from their hidden dens, so you could properly chase them down.

And I already had ideas about how to deal with getting my prey out of Russia, and back to Ceres.