The day was bright. He didn’t really mind bright days, it made working in the office easier. No need to light candles before sunset or use magic lamps. Dealing with paperwork all day left him tired, but then again he was always tired. There was always paperwork to do, always something to resolve, always some stupid, dimwitted adventurer making his life even harder. Maybe at some point in his past he actually liked adventurers, he shuddered at the thought. Handling them was always a pain. Then again it wasn’t just adventurers that got on his nerves. Anyone could be a pain to his life; he learned that the hard way after having to get rid of the salesman who had set up shop in front of the guild.

It’s like they are trying to make my day worse. They probably have some group meeting every week intent on figuring out how to drive me crazy.

The paperwork sat on his desk, and Aurus knew that staring at it would get him nowhere so he started working, as he always did. Being guild master wasn’t hard, at least it wasn’t supposed to be, but the amount of work he had to do daily was tasking. He read over a report from town hall about adventurers causing a ruckus in the marketplace. This was the third report of its kind that he had read that week.

What makes them think they can have discounts just because they are adventurers? He sighed.

Complaints about adventurer’s rarely resulted in disciplinary action. This was something the guild masters of long ago figured out: adventurers never take the blame. Throwing them in jail only made them more mad, and sometimes more dangerous. The last thing Aurus needed was a wizard flinging fire spells in town or a warrior breaking everything in the tavern, again. Normally all he had to do was threaten to keep them from the reward money, which was enough to satisfy them. He placed the report back in its specific pile, wanting to deal with that hassle later. Looking at another file, he saw it was an accident report, sent in by the Builder’s Guild.

If they actually bothered with using proper equipment maybe we wouldn’t have to worry about accidents from the construction.

A knock on the door interrupted his thoughts.

“Sir? Can I come in?” Nia spoke as she opened the door.

“Yeah sure. You already opened the door, so why not?” Aurus answered, deadpan. He was already used to her barging into his office, but just because he was used to it didn’t mean he liked it.

“Sorry, it’s just that we have a new adventurer who just signed up and I’m here to bring you the paperwork and his payment.” She placed the files on an empty spot on his desk and grabbed a pendant from her pocket, placing it on the files.

“I assume that’s the payment.” Aurus looked at the small item.

“Yes, it’s magical so I thought it would be enough to pay for the fee.”

“Alright, thank you Nia.” He said while picking up the files.

As she left he decided to go over them. This would normally be quick as all he had to do was sign a few of the papers and make copies to be catalogued. However, the way Owwen paid for his membership was unusual, he paid with an item. Dealing with magic items was perhaps the bulk of the work the guild master had to deal with. From the items that were sold or bought in the shop, to the items that were sent to storage, to items given to them or handed to them after an adventurer passed away. The process for handling items was long, but that was necessary considering the volatile nature of magic.

He was wary of items being used as payment for things, most of the time they were fake, but his assistant accepted it, and he trusted her judgement on most things. The pendant wasn’t very flashy or big for starters. It was silver with a blue gemstone in the middle. The pattern around it also didn’t seem very complex. Overall, it looked like a simple trinket, at most, some kind of jewelry used by lesser nobles; though it was set apart from regular pendants due to the magic it emanated. Aurus sensed it soon after he touched it, not something very common. Most magical items gave a faint trace of their magical nature, but normally not enough to be noticed just by touching. He was already used to examining these things so he was keener on noticing magical power, even if it was faint. This gave off a lot more than just a faint trace. Had Nia not placed the pendant on the files with her hand he would’ve been a lot more cautious around it.

This thing seems pretty powerful, but something feels off about it…

He wanted to take a closer look and so, put on his glasses. He never needed glasses to see better, but these were special in that they were also a magical item. Specifically, they could be used to identify more accurately what kind of magic certain items had. They weren’t 100% precise, but they allowed him to skip experimenting with the item, trying to find its particular nature. Looking at the pendant revealed somewhat the kind of power it had.

Why am I not surprised… Either way it is not completely useless so maybe the kid won’t have to pay the fee, or at least not all of it.

“Boss can I come in?” Nia asked, once again opening the door as she did.

“Yeah.” He took off his glasses and put them on the table.

“I have a message from the new kid. He wanted to thank you for getting rid of that street vendor.”

“Oh, alright.” He said, raising his eyebrows a bit. “When he comes back from his first quest tell him that the pendant is enough for part of the fee, but he can pay the rest using his reward money.”

Receiving gratitude for his work was one of the few things that surprised Aurus. Though his surprise usually came in the form of his serious expression changing to a slightly less serious expression. Even so, receiving gratitude did not change the fact the pendant was not valuable enough to pay for all of the fee.

“Only part of the fee? It felt powerful to me. What kind of magic did it have anyways?” She asked, genuinely curious.

“Illusion magic.” Aurus said, throwing her the small item. “The pendant uses illusion magic to make it seem powerful to whoever is holding it.”

“So it creates the illusion of being a powerful item.” Nia looked at the pendant closely. “While in reality the magic inside of it is small.”

“Yeah, whatever magic it has is being used to sustain the illusion that it is a strong item. It’s not completely useless though since the silver and the gemstone of the pendant itself are real. That’s why it will only pay part of the fee.”

“That sucks a bit. It looked like the kid really held this in high regard.” Nia frowned a bit.

“Well, that’s life for you.” Aurus said, looking through the piles of papers. “You don’t have to tell him about it if you don’t want to; just tell him that he has to pay some extra fee. Also can you schedule a meeting with the Builder’s Guild?”

“The Builder’s Guild. Got it.” Nia made a mental note. “Any particular reason you want to meet with them?” She smiled once again.

“I want to stop receiving this.” He said, showing her the accident report. “If they bothered to use proper equipment for their construction, I wouldn’t have to deal with accident reports every few days. I want to meet to make sure they understand that their negligence and slacking off has caused five accidents in the last week.”*CRASH*

The room went silent for a second.

“Six accidents in the last week.”

The silence settled again but was quickly broken by people muttering outside.

“Nia, would you please go outside to make sure everything is alright?”

“On it.” She left the room as quickly as she came in.

He waited for a few minutes, only listening to the commotion coming from outside. The window of his office faces the street, and it was on the top floor of the building so he would have been able to see what was happening. Instead, Aurus just sat on his chair, reading over a few more papers, trying to get as much work done before having to manage whatever was happening down below. He could hear people talking, they had probably gathered near where the accident was, someone probably got hurt or worse. With his luck, it was probably worse.

Nia walked into the office silently. Not a good sign.

“So… well… remember that ummmm…” She struggled to find the right words. “The new adventurer we just accepted was crushed by a pile of bricks.” She spat out as quickly as she could.

Aurus furrowed his brow, staring at her for what seemed like an eternity. He finally spoke, giving her the instructions he had just thought of.

“Try to disperse the crowd outside as best as you can. Make sure no one steals anything he had on him. Also you don’t need to schedule a meeting with the Builder’s Guild anymore. I’m going there now.” He folded the accident report and put it in his pocket.

“Ok, I can… wait, did you say disperse the crowd?”

“Yes.” Aurus said as he left.

Nia stood in his office with a frozen expression.

…Shit.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________

He knew, full well, Nia didn’t like crowds. She did not technically dislike them; she was actually comfortable even in a crowded marketplace. It was the fact she would have to speak to them. Public speaking wasn’t her strength, in fact any sort of thing that required confrontation wasn’t her thing. Any and all fights in the tavern were resolved by either himself or the chef when the latter was not busy making his next culinary masterpiece. Aurus shuddered at the thought of having to test the latest dish of that madman again. Either way, he knew that by the time he came back the crowd would still be there. Nia was reliable regarding a lot of things, but not that. However, it was still her job to do, and whether she liked it or not she had to do it, or at least try. Maybe she would even learn from the experience.

Dispersing a bunch of curious people shouldn’t be too hard. She’ll be fine… Probably. He glanced at the sky to get a general idea of the time. I may have some time left over to do it myself when I come back.

While walking, he started to think about what to say to the idiots at the other guild when he got there. Threatening with violence wasn’t an option. He had to find a way to get them to understand that these “accidents” had to stop. He was tired of the deaths and injuries, and most importantly, he was tired of the paperwork related to those. Keeping tabs on adventurers was already tasking enough, that and the fact they had to issue out notices for every death, and make sure the family got their personal items, and bury them in the cemetery properly, and a million other things that also happened whenever someone died.

Still thinking about all the paperwork he had to do a familiar voice rang from behind him. “Got any spare change sir?”

“Get a life Andrew.” He said without even looking back.

“Oh sorry Gherson! Didn’t know it was you.” Andrew said, walking up beside the guild master. He looked dirty. Not just his clothes but also everything about his appearance was just unkempt. “So how’s the guild?”

“Same as always, but you already knew that.” He said, without even looking to the side. “When are you going to start doing some quests?”

“When they stop being so much work. Do you have any idea how much money I make asking for spare change? It’s ridiculous!”

“If you make so much money why do you look homeless?”

“Because no one gives spare change to someone who looks like they have a job. If I just looked like a regular adventurer people would just spit on my face.”

“Maybe they should.” Aurus’ expression through the whole exchange remained the same.

“Well I see you’re just as serious as ever.”

“I have a reason.” Many reasons to be honest.

“You know. You should just enjoy life a bit. Smile!” He smiled trying to get the other to do the same.

The glare he received back could have sliced a man in half. Andrew remembered why he never tried to cheer the guild master up.

“Oh well, look at the time. Nice catching up with you. Bye!” He waved quickly before going back to peddling.

All adventurers got on his nerves in one way or another. Andrew managed to do that with the sheer amount of laziness he had. He used to be a decent fighter, part of an adventurer group that managed to do some impressive feats. Even so, his laziness eventually got the better of him when he realized he could make the same amount of money from people in the street than he could on dangerous quests. At least that is what he told himself. Quests paid a lot better, but the man was too lazy to care.

Aurus tried getting his mind off it, which was easy because he had reached the Builder’s Guild Hall. The large building stood near the center of the city of Anderess. It contrasted with the rest of the buildings in that it was not under construction. It was solidly built; made to withstand a lot of damage, so it made sense that it was one of the few buildings not under any renovations.

You could say what you want about their work ethic, but they sure know how to make a building impressive.

He read the inscription of the builder’s creed above the doors: “Build the Future”. The only thing prettier, and larger, than their building was the Town Hall, and they were the ones who built that as well. It did take them 20 years, but they got it done.

Their creed should honestly be “Better Late than Never”.

He walked up the steps of the building, the door wasn’t on ground level like most other places. A sign was posted on the door: “Always open”. He knew this was a lie. Their guild was only open on weekdays for a few hours before they closed for lunch, and then only for another hour before calling it a day. The great oak doors that led to the inside of the guild held intricate patterns, patterns Aurus was all too familiar with since this wasn’t his first time coming here to complain. The doors were closed, not something very common. He tried opening them but they wouldn’t budge. He decided to knock instead. No answer.

The guild should be open at this time. Lunch doesn’t usually last this long.

“Hello Aurus! We weren’t expecting you.” A voice pulled him away from his thoughts.

A bearded man poked his head out of a window near the entrance. He had a smile on his face, excited to have a guest.

“The door isn’t opening.” The dry remark did nothing to wipe that expression off the man.

“The doors are stuck. Why don’t you come in through here?” The man gestured to come inside as he opened the large window all the way.

“Sure. Not the most ridiculous thing I’ve done all day.” The sarcasm went completely over the head of the man.

After struggling a bit to enter the large building through a window, he wiped the dust off himself.

“How are you Roren?” Aurus asked.

Roren was a simple man. A simple, 7 foot, extremely bulky, very muscular, tower of a man. He wore simple clothes actually befitting of a builder, despite the fact he wasn’t one. He was in fact the servant/butler of the Master Builders, who had taken him in at a young age and trained him to be the caretaker of the building. He was not the smartest, there were probably rocks that were smarter than him, but he always did his best, and Aurus could appreciate that.

“I’m good! How are you?”

“Can’t complain.” Once again, the sarcasm was lost to Roren. “Where are they?”

“Who?” Roren replied with a confused look on his face.

“The Master Builders Roren.” He struggled to keep frustration off his voice.

“Oh! They are right this way!” The excitable man led the way.

They walked through a few large corridors, all of them carefully crafted to seem as beautiful as they were large. Though Aurus did prefer a simpler design, he still enjoyed the Builder’s Hall for what it was. They came to another set of doors, except these ones were open. Inside was a massive dinner table, placed horizontally to the entrance, completely filled with all kinds of expensive food and drink. This was a lot more extravagant than usual. He managed to spot several bottles of expensive wine and even a roasted pig that had not been fully eaten. The table looked neat but the chairs surrounding it were less so, almost as if they were in the middle of eating but left as quickly as they possibly could.

Figures this is where their money is going. Fancy dinners.

“So where are they?”

“Let me check.” He walked over the one end of the table. “Hey sir? Are you still down there?” Roren leaned down to look underneath the table.

A hushed voice came through, “Shut up Roren! I’m trying to hide from that bastard! Didn’t I tell you not to let him in?!”

“I forgot, sorry…” The giant man’s smile fell a bit.

“Now, please get out before he finds…” He froze as he spotted Aurus staring right at him.

“Hello David. Nice to see you too.” The disdain and sarcasm in Aurus’ voice was evident to all except Roren, who went back to smiling.

David got up from underneath the table and tried his best to diffuse the situation in which he had found himself. For a Master Builder, he looked nothing of the sort. His attire was similar to that of lesser nobles. His physical appearance was nothing worth noting, except for the fact he was extremely clean. Aurus’ first thought was something along the lines that a builder should probably not be this clean, especially with all the work going on in town, but he already knew that the name “Master Builder” was only a title. David probably never picked up a brick in his life, as all he did was manage the money, and from the look of the dinner table, manage it badly.

“What do I owe the pleasure of having the Guild Master of The Adventurer’s Guild in our esteemed hall?” He opened up his arms as he emphasized the grandeur of their building.

“Don’t mock me David. You should know why I’m here.”

“Give me a break Gherson. The last thing I wanted today was to have to work.” His mannerisms took a much more tame aspect after being confronted.

“It’s the middle of the week, and all I see around town are actual builders doing their work. The cost of this lunch is probably more than any of them make in a year, don’t you think that’s a bit weird.”

“Hey, I do my fair share of work around here.” He tried to justify himself.

“Sure you do. Where are the rest of the Master Builders anyways?”

David crossed his arms and his face contorted into a smug grin. “For your information they are all working right now. Working very hard to make sure the reconstruction of the town goes according to plan.”

“Really?” Roren exclaimed. “I thought they were all hiding from Aurus.” His smile didn’t falter, but David’s expression took a severe blow. Aurus’ face remained the same, but his eyes looked even more tired than before.

“I’m going to pretend I didn’t hear that.”

“Thank you… So what do you want?” David said with a defeated look on his face.

“I want the construction incidents around town to stop happening.”

“You want… accidents to stop happening?” David looked at him as if he was crazy.

“No. Accidents can’t be avoided. I want the incidents caused by your negligence to stop. We have had six ‘accident’ reports in the last week alone. Four of them resulted in extreme injury. Two of them in death, one of which just happened not long ago right in front of my guild.”

“So you want ‘incidents’ to stop, not ‘accidents’. I really don’t see what the difference is.”

“The difference is that one of them happens at random because of unforeseen circumstances. The other one is cause by negligence. Your negligence. If any of you bothered to buy proper construction equipment for the workers we would have a lot less incidents to deal with, and I would stop receiving so many of these.” Aurus got the accident report he had in his pocket and put it on the table. David looked over it.

“I want to help but our budget just doesn’t allow for newer equipment. We are already short on money this month.”

“Maybe you wouldn’t be short on money if you didn’t decide to spend all on so much food.” Aurus gestured towards the table.

“Well… Here’s the thing, I don’t see why we should struggle with a basic necessity like food. It is something that we must have every day. Right? Why shouldn’t we enjoy some of the basic pleasures in life?” He smiled meekly.

“I would hardly call roasted pig and fancy wine basic.”

“We are just trying to enjoy everything that life has to offer, that’s all.”

“You know, enjoying it a bit less wouldn’t kill you.”

“But what kind of man would I be if I were to die without having done everything I wanted to do in life?”

“You’d be exactly the same as everyone else.”

They continued to argue. Aurus started to become impatient; he had not come here to discuss the merits of enjoying life at great monetary cost. He came here to make sure that the Builder’s Guild would actually do its job properly. Thankfully, he already knew exactly how to make them do that.

“You know what, you’re right.” Aurus placed a hand on his chin.

“Yeah of course I am……. WAIT WHAT?!?!” David’s expression was of pure shock. The man who had been a thorn on his side for so long had actually agreed with him.

“Maybe I need to start doing some of the things that life has to offer.”

“Uhhhh...... Uh yeah! Definitely! I’m really glad we agree on something for once!” David was actually happy. A little scared of the sudden change of attitude, but still happy.

“I know just where to start as well. I’ll increase our spending on food. Just like you guys.”

“That is not a bad idea.” David was becoming excited. “If you don’t mind I have a few recommendations of my own when it comes to wine and…”

“But to do that I’ll have to cut the funding we provide to the town.” Aurus planted his fist on his open hand, as if he had just came up with the idea.

“…food and many other… Huh?” David interrupted himself to see if he understood Aurus correctly.

“Yes, I’ll have to cut the funding we provide to the town to be able to pay for my meals. That means the money that goes to maintain the water supply, the drainage system, the garrison, even the funding we provide for the reconstruction of the town itself.” Aurus wasn’t listening to David anymore.

“What are you…”

“That would also mean we would cut the money we spend on construction materials. I know that most of the materials used by the Builder’s Guild is provided by us, but it is a small price to pay for my enjoyment in life.” He paced around the room a bit, thinking about this as loudly as possible.

“You can’t…” David was starting to become distressed.

Turning to him, Aurus said, “I know you guys have been having financial issues lately, but I’m sure you’ll find the funds to buy construction materials from someone else. I am sure the government of our kingdom can provide official funding. Just be warned, they take forever to process anything you send them, so a requisition for additional funding may take a couple of years to go through.”

“Years!? We don’t…”

“I just hope that business will be as good in a few years. Who knows whether the town will need the builders in the future as much as they do today, with all the reconstruction happening and all… Either way I’m off to live my life!” Aurus turned around and started leaving but felt a hand grab his shoulder.

“Wait don’t!!! Please don’t! We need that funding!” David exasperated.

“But how am I supposed to live my life to the fullest if I’m keeping you financially stable?” Aurus turned towards the Master Builder, keeping up the act as best as he could.

“You’re not! Please! We can’t afford to lose our biggest supplier! Please!” David was almost in tears.

He finally dropped the act. “Will you start spending your money on better construction equipment?”

“Yes! We will buy the best stuff available!”

“Will you stop spending money on fancy dinners for yourselves?”

“Yes! We’ll do anything!”

“Good.” Aurus pushed the hand on his shoulder away. “Glad we agree with each other for once.”

David sat down again, with his head on his hands. “Roren would you please show Gherson the way out?” His voice was barely above a whisper.

“Sure thing sir!”

Roren had just been standing there the entire time. Staring off into space, or towards the dinner table, he was hungry. He listened to the entire conversation, and even when he didn’t understand any of it he knew when it was over because it always ended the same way. One of his bosses sitting with his hands on his face and Aurus waiting to be escorted out.

Probably won’t have to deal with them for some time, but I’m sure they’ll find a way to piss me off again. The incidents should stop happening so frequently, so at least there’s some good news. I wonder how well Nia’s handling the crowd right now. I’ll start worrying about that when I leave.

They had walked back through the large halls and now stood before the entrance. The stuck wooden doors.

“Here we go!” Roren said excitedly.

“Roren, aren’t these the doors that are stuck?”

“They are only stuck from the outside. You can unstuck them from the inside with this!” He pulled out a key from his pocket.

“Why didn’t you use that before?” Aurus asked through gritted teeth.

“They told me to leave it stuck for you.” His smile unwavering.

“Of course they did.” Aurus pinched the bridge of his nose with his fingers. “Can you let me out through the door instead of the window please?”

“Sure thing!” He placed the key in and opened the doors easily. “There you go!”

“Thank you Roren.” A question popped up in his mind as he remembered that the doors of the guild weren’t usually locked. “How did you know when to lock… make the doors stuck? Because they aren’t supposed to be stuck for anyone else.”

“That’s easy. My bosses always leave someone watching the street so then they know when you are coming.”

“Of course they do.” Why am I not surprised.

He said goodbye to Roren, probably the only honest worker in that building, and made his way back to the street. Aurus paused a bit to scratch his eyes to let them get used to the brightness. For all of its beauty the Builder’s Hall wasn’t as well-lit as the Adventurer’s Tavern, or his own office for that matter. He prepared himself mentally to face the crowd of people that would still be there when he heard a familiar voice behind him.

“Got any spare chang…”

“Get a life Andrew!”

“Will do boss!”

He didn’t believe for one second the man’s empty promise. The quick sound of footsteps behind him indicated that Andrew had ran away. Meeting each other twice in a day was unfortunate, for both of them. Aurus was reminded of everything he had to do that day and made a small sigh. He wasn’t one for sighing, but the day seemed to be bent on making it as hard as possible. He looked up; eyes used to the bright sun, and made his way back to the guild.