Chapter 5: Entering the Guild

After a lot of wandering, Crimson finally found the guild. He’d asked around a few times, but people used landmarks to explain where things were – not specific addresses. The fact that guild itself was a landmark didn’t help anything as a guy had told him to, “Go to the Adventurer’s Guild, it won’t be too far from there.”

…

He didn’t even have the excuse of being drunk when they gave that response. He was completely serious.

The only thing Crimson could do was sigh as he walked away. What else could he have done?

Another annoying detail was that he’d been forced to avoid eye contact with the people he’d asked. They could look into HIS eyes with no issue, but if he looked back they’d make an excuse and get away from him. It had made asking people for directions during his stay in Falst a difficult thing.

But, he’d found the Adventurer’s Guild regardless. It was a large building made of stone, standing four stories in height with a large wall that passed from either side of the guild around behind to fence in some kind of yard – possibly a training area. The building was rather sparse in windows, but the ones on the first few floors used wooden shutters while the ones on the upper floors were made of glass. Clearly, the first two floors were where all the fights broke out. Over the entrance was an emblem of a crossed sword and spear over a shield – simple.

In the guild itself there was a large central room with a long bank of receptionists on the opposite end of the room from the entrance. There was a staircase on the left side of the room that led to a loft that over looked the room, a hallway next to the receptionists and staircase, and the right side of the room had been sectioned off to form a bar and restaurant.

Crimson took a look at the signs over the receptionists and approached the one that said “new registrants” on the far left side through the mostly empty guild – even most of the reception banks were empty. Too early in the day perhaps?

The woman behind the counter was neatly dressed in a simple dress-style uniform of blue and white colors and had a gold pin with the guild emblem on the high collar of the dress. She was about the same height as Crimson and had shoulder length light brown hair and green eyes.

The guild employee greeted him pleasantly as he came to a stop, “How can I help you?”

“I would like to register with the guild.”

“Did you just receive your [Blessing]?”

Crimson shook his head, “No, I’m a little less than a year away.”

“Oh!” She seemed to get excited as she said, “That means you want to register for [Brass] rank, right?”

“Yes, I’ve heard about it, but do you mind giving me more specific information?”

“Certainly! Not many people actually know about it, but [Brass] rank is there for people who haven’t received their [Blessing] yet. It allows them to prepare, learn, and study in a controlled environment to help them be great Adventurers. We actually only started the practice last year, but not many people have taken the rank.” She let out a sad sigh.

“It really is too bad, I personally think it’s a wonderful thing. My younger brother started from [Brass] before he got his [Blessing] and was able to get a fast start as an Adventurer.”

She hadn’t answered his question.

Crimson nodded politely, “That’s very nice, but could you tell me specifically what [Brass] ranks do?”

Time to do a cost-benefit analysis and pretend like he wasn’t ready to sign on the dotted line.

“Well, they spend time learning from more experienced Adventurers who help them cultivate the skills they’ll need for the [Classes] they want to take. They also get access to the Guild Library and are able to take [Requests] here at the guild to help them save up the money for basic equipment.”

She took a deep breath and continued. Was she really that motivated to get people to join [Brass] rank?

“After you get your [Blessing] and choose your [Class] you are automatically moved up to [Bronze] rank – the usual fee is waived. If you performed admirably during your time as [Brass] you’ll also receive a Guild Endorsement that will help you in joining parties or guilds. It is very well worth your time!”

She’d put a lot of energy into that pitch, and was now looking at him hopefully, but:

“What’s the cost involved – aside from registration?”

She wilted a little, “Well, it does cost a monthly fee of 50 Royals, but that can be paid back in other ways! If you take enough requests and work hard enough in your classes and studies then the guild will waive part or all of the fee! My younger brother worked so hard that he only had to pay 10 Royals a month!”

How much work would that take? Not that he was completely opposed…

“Okay, let’s say I join, how much is the registration fee?”

If she said 100 Royals…

“It’s 100 Royals for new registrants, but for [Brass] rank we’ve lowered it down to 75. If you lack those funds, you can join based on credit, but you’d have to pay us back.”

There was no way Crimson would go into debt as his first major action in a new world. He could buy it with the funds he had currently, but he’d be left with 25 Royals – enough to survive a week if he was cautious, but he wouldn’t be eating well.

“Okay, will I be able to start taking requests immediately?”

She looked rather embarrassed, “Well, um, no. No you won’t be able to. You’ll only be able to take requests once you have your guild card, and it’ll take us a few days to a week to make it.”

So he’d have to risk starvation and losing his only place to sleep? Not worth the risk as is – he’d need to find other avenues of revenue before joining.

“I’m sorry then, I won’t be able to register today.”

The guild employee suddenly put her hands on the counter and leaned over it to get into his face, but flinched as she made eye contact for the first time and backed off. What was it about his eyes that made people run?

Well, she was stubborn and didn’t run, but it took a second for her to force herself to speak, “Why not today? Isn’t this the best time?”

“If I could take requests, yes. I would be able to make money, but if I registered now then I most likely wouldn’t be able survive until the guild card was finished.”

“You could join based off credit…”

“I will not go into debt for this.”

She appeared to be forcing herself to make eye contact with him as she rapidly tapped her index finger on the counter. After a moment of thought she asked, “Do you have any special skills?”

“Like what?”

“Well, anything that would give me something I could use to convince the Guild Master to make an exception to the rules.”

He shrugged, “I can do any form of manual labor you want and I can read and write without any issues.”

She steepled her fingers for a moment. “Since it’s just a matter of money for survival, I could see if the Guild Master would be willing to hire you for the week to do scribing tasks, but I’ll need a sample of your writing.”

“What are my chances of getting hired?”

“I’m not sure. Most people who come in won’t walk out without registering – regardless of their personal circumstances. You’re actually the first one of any registrant who was willing to walk away.”

Crimson shrugged. He’d heard somewhere that the most important part of negotiation was being able to walk away from a poor deal. While the risk factor involved might be fairly low all things considered – he could possibly get his card before he ran out of money – he still wasn’t the type to risk anything without enough information. The moment with the moving statue aside – that was a special case.

The guild employee handed him a sheet of paper and a pen. “The Guild Master is a firm worshipper of the God of Truth and the Goddess of Art, could you write a prayer to them both so I can try to convince him with it?”

Crimson tilted his head in confusion, why would writing a prayer help? It didn’t seem like a good bargaining tool. If it was really just a matter of sampling his handwriting there were other things he could write. Though, he also lacked a reason to refuse. If it failed he had nothing to lose but time; if writing the prayer worked he had everything to gain.

“Do I write one prayer to both or one to each?”

“Whichever works best for you, just make sure you use your best handwriting.”

He nodded and thought for a moment before he got to work. What could he write/say that would touch a devout believer of the God of Truth? How people worshipped the gods varied a lot based off their own personal beliefs.

He decided to just go for broke and see what came out of it:

|

Oh, my God of Truth, lend me your ear, hear my prayer: that my tongue and mind may be free of Darkness and guile. Grant unto me that I may discern fact from fiction, truth from lies, that I may show unto you my great devotion. I offer unto you my heart that I may forever retain my devotion to you and ask that you forever seal me as yours. I ask that through your blessing I may firmly enforce your laws and your [Authority] here on the planet you rule. This is my prayer unto you, oh God of Truth. So it is said.

|

Mushy. Bleh, but hopefully acceptable – it most mostly hot air that said practically nothing and lacked a point with an abrupt ending. He proceeded to write a second, but similar one to the Goddess of Art, offering up his “talent” instead of his heart this time. It was just as mushy. While Crimson certainly believed in gods and higher beings, he didn’t see how they could like this kind of thing. The amount of damage he’d take if someone directed something like this toward him… he was taking damage just trying to imagine it.

That aside, once he finished he gave the paper to the Guild Employee having filled up one side.

She read it, then put her hand over her mouth with an awed expression, “Yeah, I think this will work… Do you think you could write a prayer to the Goddess of Love for me?”

Crimson’s expression went deadpan, “We’ll talk later.”

She nodded slowly as she turned away completely absorbed in the paper, was it really that good? Maybe mushy equals good when it comes to prayers?

Crimson leaned against the counter and patiently waited as she headed down the hallway to his left. After a few minutes of waiting, a voice echoed behind him.

“Oh? What are you doing here?”

Was this the Adventurer’s Guild encounter cliché? He wouldn’t be able to win in a fight with anything stronger than a Lv.1 Slime…

Turning, he saw the elf from yesterday – the one that had been wearing the two gauntlets. She had golden hair and vivid green eyes. She stood just slightly taller than him and appeared completely at ease. She was also wearing a simple brown dress instead of the armor he’d seen her wearing yesterday.

Crimson took a moment to respond, “I’m registering with the guild.”

“Really? You don’t seem like you’re sixteen yet.”

“I’m not, I don’t have my [Blessing]. I’m joining the [Brass] rank, or at least, I’m trying to. We’ll see.”

She tilted her head in confusion, “[Brass] rank? I thought the lowest was [Bronze]?”

The female guild employee who had just walked up from her visit with the guild master responded instead, “Not since last year, The Adventurer’s Guild – Falst Branch decided to add a [Brass] rank to try and improve the quality of Adventurers. Anyway, may I ask who you are?”

The elf processed the information for a moment, then responded, “I am Verity the [Windfist]. I’m a [Martial Artist] with a [FistFighter] and [Berserker] Sub-Classes. I’m currently [Black Gold] rank. My partys name is [Cliff] and my leader’s name is Nayre. Is that enough information for you interrogator-lady?”

So those were her [Classes]? It explained the gauntlets nicely.

The employee blinked in surprise, “[Black Gold]? Falst doesn’t currently have any [Black Gold] ranks, what are you doing here?”

Verity looked at the employee smugly, “Our [Priestess] needs the [Hallowed Graveyard] to get her [Lesser Undead Purification] to Lv.10. Maybe she’ll even get lucky and have it evolve? My dear leader has been praying to the gods that it might evolve.”

The guild employee had an awed look appear on her face as she nodded in understanding. Fortunately, Crimson was able to follow the conversation even if he didn’t understand the specifics behind things, like why it was impressive, and why did they act like [Skill Evolution] was a lucky chance or something they needed the Gods help with?

For some reason, Verity was looking at Crimson with an even more smug look – as if waiting for something.

Annoyed, he asked, “What? Do I have something on my face?”

Verity looked a little disappointed, “”What?” How could that be your only reaction to how awesome I am? My party and I are doing things so far above you that you should be amazed and begging for more info, but you don’t seem impressed at all Silver-Eyes…”

“My name isn’t “Silver-Eyes” it’s Crimson.”

Curse Raften and his naming sense, it wasn’t much better than Silver-Eyes.

“Whatever Silver-Eyes, I’ll catch you later.”

She…hadn’t flinched when she’d made eye contact with him. Did it mean that those stronger than him weren’t affected? He still wasn’t sure. He’d need to scare more people to gain some information.

Turning his attention back to the guild employee, he asked, “What did the Guild Master have to say?”

The woman took a moment to respond, “He said that it was fine. The Guild will be hiring you for the next week to help us clear out our backlog of paperwork and write up requests.” She smiled mischievously, “He took one look at what you wrote and told me to hire you.”

Well, mushy works.

Crimson nodded, “When do I get started?”

She smiled excitedly, “After you finish registering.”

The loss of 75 Royals later, Crimson got to work.

Crimson was burning the midnight candle, literally. It was still only his first day working for the guild – well, second now, it had just passed midnight – but he could see why they’d hire him so easily. The backlog of paperwork was… awe inspiring. Literal stacks of paper that needed to be sorted, relevant information that needed to be entered, files that needed new cabinets, and an insane amount of grievances.

Even after hours of work he hadn’t made a noticeable dent in the mess, but he had at least learned quite a bit more about the value of money from the grievances. What a fun way to learn that. People could be really petty, demanding: the guild, their party members, regular citizens, and even royalty for money using the guild as a medium for their pettiness and straight up lies.

There was only one that attacked the royalty, but when he’d casually mentioned it to Emma –the guild employee- she’d taken the sheet from him and went to speak to the Guild Master. It probably wouldn’t end well for the Adventurer – he’d been pretty slanderous in his attempted robbery. No other way to phrase what it was. What a fool.

Well, he continued on swapping between the various tasks so that he wouldn’t get too bored by one, and by the time his third candle had started to burn low it actually started to look like he’d made a dent in the mess – if he squinted right.

To kill some of the boredom and monotony of the task he’d even started playing with his mana as he went about his work, running it all throughout his body and just getting used to the sensation of it. Unfortunately, he hadn’t been able to get it to actually DO anything.

It didn’t give off light, he couldn’t interact with anything using it, once it left his body he could barely affect it unless he put it IN something, but it wouldn’t affect the object he put it into in any way and it would leak right out the second he let go of the object. What was the point? Would it really only become useful once he learned magic?

Crimson sighed as he put another piece of paper on a stack higher than the desk it was next to, and continued his musings as the sun began to rise. He’d been at it all night – great.

Not long after the sun rose Emma walked in and found him still working.

“What a hard worker you are! You came in so early! Wait a second…you don’t have a key…how did you get in?”

He looked at her in amusement, “I only left for a short time yesterday afternoon to grab my stuff and food. Since then, I haven’t left.”

“Or slept?”

“Or slept.” He shrugged.

He’d been rather caught up in the task before him and hadn’t really found a good moment to stop. The fact that real progress could be seen in the amount of paperwork remaining had also contributed to his unwillingness to stop. That, and one other thing.

Emma stared at him for a long moment, “When do you plan on sleeping?”

“I was going to finish off the rest of this stack here, get breakfast, come back, pass out at this desk for four hours, then get back to work.”

Emma appeared to be having a hard time finding a response to that…oh, he was making eye contact. Once he’d broken it she started to respond,

“Aren’t you going to kill yourself doing that?”

“No. I’ll only allow myself to move within acceptable limits.”

“Being up all night is acceptable?”

“The danger with being up all night is consistently doing it. I won’t do it tonight or tomorrow, so there should be no issues.”

Emma shook her head and slowly looked around apparently trying to find the words to respond. When she got a good look at the amount of paperwork Crimson had taken care of her jaw dropped.

“You did all that in one night?”

Crimson casually glanced at the pile, “Yeah, if you work at something for a long time you do end up seeing progress. Though, some of this stuff is really depressing.”

Emma slowly closed her mouth and swallowed hard, she nodded robotically, then walked off jerkily. What was with her?

Crimson shrugged, then got to work finishing the last of his current stack. He even figured out a trick where he could create a mana conduit using a piece of paper. Apparently, he could even pull the mana back inside his skin – something he hadn’t tried before. It was a weird sensation that felt almost like a pleasant vaccine shot – if such a thing was possible.

Finishing the stack, he stood and rubbed his dry and gritty feeling eyes. He’d definitely need some good sleep, but there was something he’d neglected the day before that he couldn’t allow himself to slack on: his morning run.

Exiting the office he headed down to the first floor from the third floor and out into the yard in the back.

It was a wide open area with a black stone wall surrounding the exterior, there were racks of wooden weapons and dulled metal ones, chalk circles for sparring arenas, and spots of environmentally controlled footing: sandy, snow, ice, rocky, and even “mostly” on fire. That last one looked rather unpleasant.

Fortunately, there was room around the edge of the area that gave Crimson space to run. He stretched, then got to work running.

As he ran, he felt like an itch that he hadn’t been able to scratch had finally been found and it felt so good to scratch. Crimson smiled to himself, how dependent on his running had he become? Not that it was a bad thing. After a good hour of running and varying his pace he felt absolutely drained. Normally, he wouldn’t be so wiped, but the loss of sleep was rearing its ugly head.

As he headed back inside after wiping off his sweat he ran into Emma, who crinkled her nose the second he got within a few feet.

“What have you been doing?”

“Running.”

“Why would you do that? You skipped a night of sleep for paperwork, then went running the second you took a break, are you some kind of masochist?”

“I’m staying firmly within acceptable limits.”

“No, you’re not, and you stink! Follow me!”

She led Crimson back outside and along the back of the main building till they reached a wooden door.

“Enter.”

Soldiers would snap to attention at that tone.

“Yes.”

Crimson suppressed the “sir” that wanted to creep out along with the “yes.”

Inside was a room with concrete troughs of water and buckets for washing. He glanced back at Emma and she pointed at the room, “Use.”

Crimson quietly close the door between them in response. He did as instructed – it wasn’t like he liked being smelly or dirty either.

Not too much later, he exited as a reborn – albeit freezing cold – man. Emma was standing outside tapping her foot and gave him a solemn nod in response to his appearance.

“Good, even if it’s temporary, we can’t have you tarnishing the guilds image.”

“Understood.” He responded icily while trying to keep his teeth from chattering.

With his hygiene taken care of, Emma let him go and he went to get something to eat. True to his word, when he came back he passed out at his work desk for a few hours, then got to work once more.

Emma was kind enough to bring him lunch, so there was no need for him to leave and he continued to work as the piles of paper slowly grew smaller. The room was still full, and he’d only get through maybe three-fourths of it in the week he had, but he’d do the best he could to finish it all. He had been promised that he’d be “paid fairly based off the amount and quality of the work he’d done.” It was a good opportunity to perform a simple test: could the guild be trusted?

It wasn’t a major test, but it would answer questions like: Would it be similar to the insurance companies back home that would do everything possible to avoid a pay out? Would it pay up generously? Would it truly pay fairly? It would be interesting to see.

For the moment, he was getting what he’d wanted. He had avoided the need of renting a room the night before, Emma had provided for one of his meals, and he had access to a free bath. The job had already extended his purse’s life-span to be long enough that he could quit and still get his guild card with little issue, but there was no need when he could stick around, make money, and save money. He’d mooch off them as long as possible under the guise of working hard.

Well, he’d actually be working hard, so there would be no proper way to out him for what he was doing, but they could put a stop to it if it seemed like he was killing himself through work – he’d need to avoid that to prolong the situation for as many days as possible.

At about mid-afternoon there was a knock on the door and it opened before Crimson could respond.

Behind it, a Dark-Elf woman stood in a far too revealing red dress holding a long delicate pipe. She sashayed into the room, humming to herself, then spoke when she stood in front of his desk.

“My, who is this? A little snack?”

Crimson recognized trouble, both in the woman and in his response to her, so he elected to continue working silently.

“My, my. My little snack seems so delicious, but he is so lacking in manners to ignore such a voluptuous lady such as myself.”

She wanted him to react, huh? Well, his practice hiding his emotions was paying off, but he needed to get rid of her anyway. After a moment of thought, he decided to give her a simple answer, one that relied on something even he still hadn’t figured out.

He looked up and made eye contact with her. Her only reaction was to tighten her grip on her pipe, but it was enough for his words to hit home, “I’m not interested. Please leave so that I may work. You are wasting my time.”

A wooden smile crossed her face, “Why, how could you be so cold? Well, it’s fine. We’ll have plenty of time to get to know each other. My name is Sherry. I think you’ll be in my tender care for quite some time.” She giggled suggestively, “Don’t worry, I’m gentle on new members like you.”

Crimson continued working – choosing to ignore her. He’d already told her all he wanted to. He hated this kind of woman – one who teases to elicit a response. She even chose the worst kind of teasing to do so as well. He found it distasteful.

——

Sherry stepped out of the room with the Silver-Eyed heart attack. The second she’d met his eyes it was like she was being crushed by an intense pressure. It had taken all of her effort not to attack him in that moment out of panic – she didn’t want to be responsible for killing someone who didn’t even have their [Blessing].

As she walked down the hall, her heartbeat finally started to slow. Her knees – hidden by the skirt of her dress – had yet to stop shaking though.

It was pathetic of her – a spit in the face of her own strength and her position in the guild. She had already performed [Breakthrough] twice on her High-Grade Primary [Class] and was close to a third, yet she was almost instantly cowed by someone who lacked any strength. How pathetic!

She forced herself to calm down, pushing and tamping down emotions and exerting control over herself, as she did, she saw something she hadn’t seen in a long time.

——

You have exerted an extreme amount of control over yourself.

+1 WIL

——

Sherry laughed to herself, when was the last time her Willpower had gone up? It had been years. She’d best look on the bright side, the guild would be interesting with him around for the next little while. Maybe she could be assigned as his Guild Advisor? She might even get additional Willpower out of it, and she’d prove to herself that she could face down those abyssal Silver-Eyes. In the mean time, she’d get her revenge however she could. He was friends with Emma, was he not? That girl had an excellent temper, and she had been the one to suggest that Sherry greet him.

Crimson continued his work and elected to sleep under the desk using his bedroll once it became late. Huzzah for saving money!

He awoke early as per his usual habit – it had become much easier for him by now – and went out to do his morning run. He ran for an hour, cleaned himself in the bathing room, then was back at his desk working on the paperwork while munching on some bread after he’d hid the evidence of his night spent sleeping under the desk.

With mid-morning approaching, Crimson looked around the room in satisfaction at how far he’d come. The room, originally stacked with paper from floor to ceiling, now had space to move around and the rug could finally be seen. Was it still full? Very, but as he continued to work he’d gotten more efficient about it, so his original estimation of only being able to finish three-fourths had gone up to him being able to finish it all.

Did the guild intend for him to do it all when they’d first hired him? Probably not, no. No reasonable human being would be able to keep the killer schedule he was keeping himself under, but no reasonable human being would have the same drive as him either.

Crimson hated leaving anything unfinished – he liked to complete the tasks he set before himself without a whit or a jot left undone. Whether it was a good or bad habit would remain to be seen.

Emma stalked into the room just before lunch and she seemed to be fuming, “Just what did you do to Sherry when she paid you a visit yesterday?”

Crimson looked at Emma with a raised eyebrow, what did Sherry tell her?

Oh, she didn’t flinch when they made eye contact this time. Maybe she was getting used to it? That would be nice. The only one to not really react would be that one elf – Verity. The harem group didn’t count – he didn’t properly make eye contact with any of them since he spent the entire time trying to get away or distance himself from them. The closest to actually making eye contact had been the moment that the elven bimbo had gotten up in his face, but he still hadn’t made proper eye contact.

Crimson responded, “I did absolutely nothing to her. I just made it clear that she was in the way of my work and ignored her after that.”

Emma puffed out her cheeks, “That’s certainly not what she told me!”

“So who are you mad at? Me, who has no reason to lie, or Sherry, who’s mad because I ignored her?”

“I-“ Emma took a long moment to think before she appeared to calm down. “You’re right, I forgot for a second what kind of person Sherry was, and what kind of person you are.”

Crimson casually placed a few more sheets of finished paper work on their respective piles before responding, “So what did she tell you that I did?”

Emma puffed up her cheeks once more, “Don’t worry about it! I’m going to go talk to her!” Crimson felt his amusement surge as she flounced out of the room. He had a feeling that the conversation was going to go very poorly for the Dark-Elf trickster. She deserved it.

Crimson kept his schedule and killer pace over the next four days, but he had extending his morning work out time a little more so that he could swing the training weapons around a little. He still wasn’t sure what [Class] he wanted to get, but it was best to experiment where he could to see what stuck. So far, he’d definitely ruled out spears – they brought out the trauma of his slime hunt. It had been so inefficient…

Crimson stretched his arms as he walked out of the office he’d been calling home for the past week. All of the paperwork had been taken care care of in that week’s time.

By the end, he’d lost 89 Royals in the past week. 75 for registration and the remaining 14 for food. It really would have been too close if he’d been forced to stay in the inn, but now, he could go collect his pay since his employment contract expired today.

Crimson walked down the stairs reminiscing about the first time he’d try to go up them: he’d fallen. Emma had given him fire for his clumsiness as she used healing magic on him. Feeling the mana rush over his skin had been rather pleasant. The fact that it also gave a…clean…feeling had helped. The kind of pleasant sensation of pouring clean water over his hands. Well, no matter how much he enjoyed how the mana felt it was still to his eternal embarrassment when she was forced to repeat the process when he went down them and fell once more, but he’d avoided repeating the process after some time spent practicing. Worth it.

Crimson met Emma at her desk and leaned on it to ask, “So, is my guild card done?”

She nodded excitedly, “Yeah! It’s been done for two days now!”

Crimson felt his smile go frigid, “And you didn’t inform me before now…why?”

“Well, you never asked, and you were really focused on the paperwork. I don’t think you even noticed when I caught Sherry trying to bug you yesterday and…politely informed her that she wasn’t to disturb you.”

“No, I noticed. I was ignoring her on purpose.”

“Did you get a [Skill] for it or something? The way you ignored her was way too natural.”

“Practice – it wasn’t the first time she’d bugged me.”

“Can you teach me?”

Crimson shook his head sadly, “I don’t think you’re personally suited for this skill. You like to fight with Sherry way too much.”

“I…I…cannot deny that.”

“Don’t worry about it, just refine your battle skills and don’t give her any time to recover.”

Emma held up both of her fists in front of her in a determined pose, “I shall take your advice to heart.”

Crimson responded with sarcastic amusement, “Good.” Glancing around at the empty guild – most employees wouldn’t show before 10 in the morning – he asked, “So, who do I need to talk to about payment for my week of work, and where’s my Guild Card?”

Emma smiled brightly, “The Guild Master wanted to give both of those to you in person. You know where his office is, right?”

“Yeah,” he’d passed it a few times, but hadn’t seen its owner.

“Just head in to see him, he’s waiting for you.”

Crimson nodded, then headed up to the fourth floor. Once outside the Guild Master’s office he put his hand on the ornate handle, and knocked with the other one. Once he’d heard the muffled reply on the other side, he entered the room.