“Hm…”

“So what do you think, Kid? Should be a good deal for ya!”

Roland eyed the parchment in front of him. It had already been an hour since the hearing took place and Armand was probably relieved of his position by now. He on the other hand was led up to the guild master’s office and was now looking through a sort of contract.

It wasn’t an actual contract yet though, just a list of what he would be getting for working with the guild.

He would need to stop selling his wares at the auction house, this was more or less the only thing that the guild wanted. His runic weapons would be placed in the guild run shops that were in the city as well as in this building.

The guild operated in one main location but that didn’t mean that they didn’t own other businesses in this city. They sponsored people that could bring in profits like alchemists or monster butchers that were good at deconstructing monsters for parts.

Roland was not too keen on giving up his freedom. Ever since Edelgard and the cultist debacle he stopped trusting large companies. Even if they made a contract it didn’t mean that they would keep it while he on the other hand would be bound to it.

In return for signing himself over to the guild, he would receive several bonuses. From what he could tell these bonuses were similar to what instructors like Armand were getting. Discounts to potions, more gold for monster parts, and access to some guild facilities if he ever wanted.

“I don’t think I can make a decision right now, I’ll borrow this and I’ll tell you within the week…”

After going through the hearing he was getting tired. Not physically but mentally as he still wasn’t used to being around so many people and talking with them. There was also Bernir that had been waiting for him for the past hour. He was starting to feel bad for his assistant as well as Agni that was left behind in a special room in his secret workshop.

“Not convinced? Anything that would sway your mind?”

The guild master gave out a sigh after hearing Roland’s answer. The two had gone back and forth while going through the contract. He did notice that he started losing Roland’s attention after mentioning giving up rights to selling items at the auction house.

“Sway my mind?”

Roland had gotten up by now and was about to head out of the guild master’s office but then he remembered something. There was a certain manufacturing method that he wanted to get his hands on.

“Well… if you can get me the schematics for the mana stone smelter along with the recipe for the mana alloys…”

This was one of the Rune Smithing secrets that he desired to get. With the correct smelter and the recipe on how to make specific mana alloys, he would be able to ditch the flashy mana stone design.

He would be able to just integrate it into the structure of the weapon or armor. This had multiple advantages one being that there would be more surface for runic inscriptions. The other is that it would be impossible to knock the mana stone out of the weapon which would ruin the whole runic structure.

This advanced Runesmith technique required two things. A special smelter that had a specific runic structure. One that only produced fire wasn’t quite enough, he somewhat knew that this special smelter would shape the mana alloy in some way. Then he needed the actual manufacturing method, otherwise, he could have to spend months or even years testing everything himself until something stuck.

“Mana stone smelter… that’s quite the little contraption you want… but…”

The guild master leaned back in his chair and started rubbing his chin. It was clear that he was thinking hard about the pros and cons of such a transaction. Roland knew that the price for something like that would be high. It wasn’t out of the realm of possibilities, if this man had the connections he might be able to get him what he needed.

“Give me a few weeks, I’ll see what I can do… but… you better prepare!”

The man slammed his large hand on the larger desk and made it shake some more before standing up.

“You’ll have to make it worth my time kid!”

Roland knew that this meant that he would need to make quite a lot of runic items for the guild. This didn’t mean that he would need to craft everything himself. There were enough advanced blacksmiths that could prepare the items and he would just add them his flair. Which was what the guild master was aiming for as he already saw his average-looking weapons with the above-average runes.

“If you can find me those… then perhaps…”

He wouldn’t just agree at this very moment but he did want those schematics. An alloy like that would be perfect for something like a magical golem. Having it not be covered in mana stones would help out for something that needed to be durable.

“Perhaps? Listen here kid, I’ll have to contact some of my associates but don't think that you'll get anything before signing that contract! Do you even know how much something like this costs?”

Roland nodded at the guild master's reasoning. Why would he go through getting a costly item only for Roland to say that he didn’t want it anymore? He would be stuck with something he had no use for other than selling it on the auction house for a lesser price.

“Good point… are you sure you can procure it?”

The guild master rubbed his chin again but instead of a confident response he just shrugged.

“As I said, give me some time."

Apparently, he was also not sure if he could get his part of the deal done. Roland would need to return later or have them send him another letter.

“I see...I’ll just read through this again and you can get back to me once you have everything sorted out.”

Roland waved the parchment with the bonuses that the guild was offering him. The things in this list were tempting but they weren’t really a deal-breaker. If he had to choose between them and the manufacturing method, he would go with the runesmith knowledge.

With it, he could just charge more for his wares and they would also last longer. If it was possible Roland would even pay extra just to get his hands on that knowledge. It seemed that this guild master wanted him badly on his side.

Runecrafting was a rare profession that could elevate an adventurer to new heights. He was probably hoping to sell the weapons and armor which would then cause the adventurers to hunt more monsters. With more dead monsters came more monster parts and even more gold. For someone that looked like a muscle-bound idiot, this guild master was quite cunning and hungry for money.

“I’ll have one of the girls prepare the contract.”

The two exchanged some words before Roland left. Before going through with anything the guild master would see if it was possible to get what he asked him for. If not, then they would be back at square one and a new exchange would need to be proposed.

“Sorry about that, we can go now…?”

Roland arrived at the main guild area where all the adventurers were busy picking up new missions. He found Bernir at the pub section, the half-dwarf was noticeable due to the number of beer mugs on the table. Before he could scold him about his alcohol addiction he noticed someone else sitting at his assistant’s table.

“Armand?”

“B-boss you’re finally here!”

Bernir looked ecstatic that Roland was back from his business talks. It was clear that something was wrong with this picture. Armand that they had failed a complaint about was in the process of drinking some alcohol.

“What’s going on here?”

Roland whispered to Bernir while looking at the muscle brain from the corner of his eye.

“He just sat down next to me and started drinking and complaining…”

Bernir whispered back while trying to explain. After the hearing was over Armand’s instructor rights were revoked and he lost all of his nice bonuses. The two started whispering for a moment and Bernir gave a recount of what transpired after Roland went away…

40 minutes earlier…

“Hey barkeep, hit me up!”

“Sure thing!”

Bernir called out to the person behind the counter and was given two mugs filled with alcohol. He set them down on a table that was free and began relaxing. The only thing that was on his mind was to get back home and how nice it felt to see those thugs being abused by that large half-orc.

“Serves those bastards well, good riddance!”

While holding up his mug in the air he did a little cheer while some people wondered what was wrong with him. Bernir didn’t care, finally, things were looking up for him. There were plans of expanding the workshop and he was about to begin his tier 2 journey.

He was aiming to become an armorsmith to help out Roland. The biggest thing he was excited about was a proposition that he was given. His boss mentioned that he was spreading himself thin, he wanted to focus on runecrafting but due to this his blacksmithing skills couldn’t keep up.

So then he offered Bernir to take some of that burden off him. The half-dwarf would be tasked to create the armor shell for him while he inscribed it with his runes. Roland would still craft the weapons himself but the armor would be Bernir’s task. Being someone that was dreaming of becoming an armor maker since a young age this was something he couldn’t refuse.

The need to go back to his own workshop and work was making him all giddy. There were so many types of armor that he wanted to create. Thanks to Roland he would already be able to work with deep steel and the runic tools would speed everything up.

They only needed to expand the underground workshop so that he would have space to work there himself. The dummy log shed would be now mostly used as his living quarters.

While thinking about the future he heard a loud sound, as he turned to it he could see the man that his boss filed a complaint against. Armand was by the reception and talking with the glasses-wearing receptionist lady. Bernir had nothing better to do so he listened in while being slightly afraid that this man could try to take his revenge at a later date.

“Calm down Armand, you brought this on yourself.”

“On myself? I thought you were on my side!”

The two started arguing with each other. Armand mostly threw out empty accusations while acting like a child. Soon a smacking sound resounded and a red handprint appeared on his face. Bernir raised his eyebrow after seeing the receptionist lady deliver this slap.

“Why did I even bother with someone like you, when will you grow up?”

A moment of silence descended upon the adventurer’s guild. Armand was shouting quite loudly so other people had noticed the scene. Most of the warriors were laughing from the side while finding it funny that Armand lost his position. Now they were whispering and Bernir could hear them clearly.

“Poor Elodia, heard she was running around the city searching for those witnesses.”

“She did? Is that even part of her job as a receptionist?”

Apparently, the person that found those people to testify was the receptionist lady. Thanks to her Dread End reached a timely demise. Bernir looked to the woman, if the scary muscle man wasn’t there he would actually go thank her for helping him and Roland with this case.

He still was a bit perplexed by her actions though, she helped them with that side of the hearing but also voted against punishing Armand when the time came. The only thing he could come up with is with her being too soft on this brother of hers.

“I bet she wanted to get Armand off the hook.”

“Perhaps…”

On the other hand, the two guild workers that were talking thought she just did it to help her brother. If Amand got associated with Dread End he could have been punished even more. The witnesses made it clear that he was just someone that arrived there randomly and was not there during Bernir’s attack either. At least that is what he could make out from their conversation.

Then it happened, Armand that had been slapped started walking towards the guild bar. At this point, Bernir moved his gaze back to his alcoholic beverage. He then heard a strange thumping sound followed by wood cracking. To his dismay, the person that had it in for his boss was now sitting at the table behind him. The two had their backs to each other which caused Bernir a lot of stress.

‘Hope boss comes back soon… it's already been ten minutes…’

With not being able to control the situation he just continued to chug on his drink while Armand behind him did the same. At first, it seemed that he was being civil but after a couple of quick drinks the angry grunts behind Bernir turned to strange mumbles.

“Huh?”

Roland’s assistant then felt something large pushing against his back, when he turned around he noticed that Armand was leaning back while having trouble keeping his balance.

“Is he drunk already?”

It seemed Armand had zero tolerance for alcohol after a couple of filled mugs his face was all red and his speech was broken up.

“Uhg, huzat? Hey… dunt I kno u?”

Bernir was noticed sitting alone while waiting for Roland to come back. Armand had lost all of his reasoning and slumped forward right next to the half-dwarf.

*Hic*

“Whateva… want to be my friend? No one respects me anymore…”

*Hic*

Bernir found a large muscular arm draped around his shoulder as Armand started hugging him as if they were some old drinking buddies. This is how he spent the next twenty minutes while the muscle brain whined about losing his position. A few minutes before Roland arrived he was able to flee as his drinking buddy had gotten too drunk to care.

“So that’s what happened?”

“Yes boss… think we should go…”

Roland was now looking at a drunk blockhead with his face against the table. His drink was spilled and he had a stupid expression on his face.

“Who gets this drunk in the middle of the day?”

This only made Roland look down on this young man even more. Due to this display of drunkenness, he was just making trouble for other people around him. Someone would need to clean up after him and maybe even carry him back home.

‘Hope this guy learns something from this…’

Armand was from what Roland knew, twenty-two years old. Which in his eyes made him a young brat. He himself would be in his late thirties if he added his life from his previous world.

In that world, someone like Armand would probably still be stuck in a university or working a blue-collar job. Roland didn’t like him but could see how this world could shape someone like him. The real challenge for this young man was progressing past this point and learning from his mistakes.

“Let’s go back home.”

The sight of a drunk and defeated Armand brought less joy to Roland than he expected. While trying to get to the bottom of why he felt this way he was approached by the receptionist called Elodia.

“I’d like to apolog…”

Before the woman could speak up he moved his hand up to stop her.

“Don’t. It doesn’t matter if you apologize to me, you didn’t do anything wrong.”

Roland wasn’t actually mad that this woman voted for her family member. He would have probably done the same if he was in her shoes.

“You should probably get this idiot a sobering potion before he makes a mess…”

Roland pointed to Armand that was wobbling around and slowly falling asleep. Elodia’s eyebrows went into an angular shape as she looked at this brother of hers.

“Y-yes, excuse me, Mr. Wayland.”

The woman still bowed before him while going over to Armand. It was finally time to return back to the workshop.

“Hm… that woman, think I’ve seen her around the city before…”

“Is that so?”

“Ah!”

Bernir looked as if he realized something as they were returning. With nothing better to do the conversation shifted to a certain woman wearing glasses.

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