Chapter 121 - Trouble At The Guild

"Let's put the matter of this idiot aside for now," the woman said as she swung her hand to the side, pointing towards one of the many doors fitted into a nearby wall. "How about we discuss business in a more fitting place?" she asked with a slight smile blossoming on her face. 

"No, I don't think this is a good idea," Tom replied with a smile as bright as the one that the guild master wore. "If we bring it behind closed doors, won't that make everyone here feel like we are going to make some shady deal?" Tom asked, spreading his arms around as if in an attempt to point at everyone in the room. 

"Young man, I don't think I appreciate how bold you are," the woman said, her smile souring. 

"Old hag, I don't think I care what you do appreciate or not," Tom replied, his smile blossoming even further. 

For a mere moment, the entire building turned silent. The people stopped talking; there were no sounds of cups hitting the desk or the liquor flowing down the adventurer's throat. The entire place froze.

"Heh," the guild master chuckled.. "Hahaha!" she then laughed out loud, taking everyone, Tom and Claudia included, by surprise. "It's been ages since anyone dared to be so audacious with me!" she shouted, grabbing herself by her stomach to quell her laughter.

"I didn't expect that, I won't lie," Tom said, taking his turn to sour the smile on his face. 

"What, would you prefer if I acted up?" the woman asked, still holding herself by a thin line from rolling on the floor from laughing. 

"Aren't you overexaggerating?" Claudia suddenly asked, taking a step forward. "I don't think anything happened to warrant your sudden laugh," she said, squinting her eyes and clenching her palms into fists. 

"There is no need to be so wary of me, young lady," the woman said, wiping the tears off her eyes. Then, she finally managed to calm herself down and straighten her back before looking properly at Claudia. "Once you work in a position giving you common respect, having someone treat you like people did in the past will be really enjoyable, I promise," she said. 

"Enough with the chit-chat," Tom cut the discussion, approaching Claudia only to put his hand on her shoulder. "We came here for two reasons, but now there are three matters to deal with. First, how are you going to punish one of your workers for naming me a thief?" Tom asked, still keen on continuing with his plan. 

"Why are you so keen on punishing him?" the woman asked. "It's not like he did you any real harm," she said, shrugging her shoulders. 

"Then," Tom's smile turned vicious, "you wouldn't mind if everyone in this room started calling you a loose whore with horseshit for brains?" he asked, using the rich depository of insults that any player of the online games would learn.

"Careful," the woman said, lowering her eyelids. "So far, I can still consider your words as a poorly-placed joke, but you are quickly reaching the line you shouldn't cross," the guild master warned. 

"See?" Tom asked, relaxing his facial muscles. "You claim that there is no harm in insulting me, yet you actually threaten me when I use this logic against you!" the young man pointed out, not bothered by the hostile aura of the woman at all. 

'If I were to compare... Her strenght would be roughly similar to that of the bosses from the sixtieth floor and above,' he thought. 'No,' he added in his thoughts after a moment. 'That's just the aura of hers. Adding skills and experience, and she could maybe be on part with the boss of the seventieth floor?' Tom made a guess, ensuring that no one in the room posed any real danger to him or Claudia. 

"I..." the woman hesitated for a moment only to hand her head low nearly a minute later. "I guess you are right," she said, releasing a deep sigh. She then shook her head and nodded at the guards standing behind her. "Take him and throw him to the lord's dungeon for a month." She turned her head and looked at Tom. "Will this punishment suffice?"

"Was it really so damn hard?" Tom asked instead of giving a straight answer. He then brought his hand up, presenting the grade five stone back to the public. "Now, how much are you willing to pay for this stone?"

"It has a nice cut, almost as if it wasn't mined at all," the woman said, taking a step closer and leaning towards the mana stone. "Normally, I would offer fifty princals..." the woman hesitated for a moment only to raise her eyes at Tom, "but I remember that you had something else to deal with here. Let's discuss the price once I hear more about it," she said, raising her torso and moving away from Tom. 

"The last matter that I need to settle is the registration with the guild," Tom said, lowering his hand and hiding the stone back underneath his clothes. "We managed to reach so far on our own," he said, taking a glance at the girl beside him, "but there is only so much that one can achieve as a pair of two and two alone," he added, looking directly into the woman's eyes. 

"You managed to get so powerful without registering?" the guild master asked as if she didn't hear the question the first time. Her face tensed up while her eyes widened, proving that she simply couldn't believe what she actually heard. 

"We didn't come here to discuss our reasons or means," Tom pointed out, raising his left eyebrow. "Of course, if our manner of keeping our cards to our chest isn't to your liking, there are so many other places where people would be happy to help us," he said, shaking his shoulder to show how little he cared. 

"I guess that's an undeniable truth," the woman replied, shaking her head. Her eyes lost a bit of their usual shine. 

'Is she bothered by this statement or something?' Tom asked himself. Even though he knew finding out an answer would cost him way too much time and effort and was something he wouldn't be able to do without wasting those, he still formulated the question in his head. Not because he had any chances of finding out the answer, but because a thought stated was an idea, while a fleeting thought was just an inspiration. 

"Well, with the registration in mind, the price will fall to forty princals," the woman said. 

Just like when Tom dared to openly insult her, the entire room turned silent. While the young man could understand that there was something huge in the guild master's statement, the lack of knowledge about common sense made it impossible for him to figure out what exactly was that. 

"Is that your final offer?" Tom asked, more for the sake of sounding the other party off rather than actually trying to negotiate the price. 

"I'm sorry, but yes," the woman said, looking Tom directly in the eyes. "Not reporting what I just heard is worth that much," she said before her lips suddenly curved upwards, making the woman reveal the whites of her teeth. "But that's just me and the stuff of the guild," the grin on the woman's face turned ugly. "No matter how much you will pay me, I can't vouch for all the people in this building," she said, shaking her shoulders. 

For the third time in the short period of time, everyone in the building froze. 

Tom looked around. While confusion took over the expression of the majority of people around, there were some faces on which greedy smiles started to grow. 

"Claudia," Tom said, keeping the eye-contact with the guild master.

"Yes?" the girl replied, raising her eyes at the young man. 

"Kill anyone who dares to leave the building," Tom said with no hesitation before bringing the stone forward on his extended hand. 

"IDIOT!" a shout reached Tom from the side. One of the adventurers that just happened to sit relatively close lunged forward, stretching his hands towards the precious stone. 

Even without his haste activated, Tom could both see the movement and react to it. But before he could as much as twitch, Claudia took half a step forward and slammed the air in front of her.

"Huh?" the man only gasped for air when a wave of compressed strenght squashed his stomach and sent the to-be-snatcher flying. 

"What do you think you are doing?" the woman asked, ignoring the quick clash and looking at Tom's face instead. "While I agreed to buy it, I never said I can pay for it right away," she said, pulling her hands as far away from the stone as she could. 

"I don't care," Tom said, gently throwing the stone to the woman. Thanks to the lucky display of Claudia's strenght, no one dared to attempt snatching it. "Give me as much as you can now, and I will come to get the rest once you are done gathering it," he said, watching how the guild master caught the stone. 

"Are you..." she started speaking only to suddenly bite her lips. "Are you actually sure you want to give away such a precious resource?" the guild master asked, looking at Tom as if he was some kind of madman. 

'What, did you think that the entire thing was just a rouse?' Tom asked himself before shaking his head. 

"For the two of us, this thing is nothing more but a spare piece of trash," he said, gracing the woman with a lovely smile of his. "We lived in the wild for long enough. Right now, I just want to give my wife the comforts she deserves," Tom said, patting Claudia's on her shoulder.