"Welcome to the Arcadios Adventurer's Guild. It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance, Lord Kane and Lady Kane. I imagine the rest of your party will be those in this room?"
A homely-looking half-elf woman stood at the opposite end of the long table centered in the conference room they had reserved. Shortly after Rena and Lucius arrived, the guild sent one of its receptionists up to assist with the scheduled meeting.
It was common for parties to reserve rooms and timeslots with receptionists at this branch due to its size. Though Lelvern was a more densely populated city, the capital of the country was much physically larger and had a much higher standard for what the government considered 'safe' for the territory surrounding the seat of their nation.
Because of this abundance of caution, adventurer work was never-ending, and the guild in this city was the largest in the country. In most countries, the guild halls in their capitals were also the largest and busiest branches.
"Yes. These others with me will be joining my party. We are students at the Arcadios Royal Academy, so registration examinations are exempt for them. Lady Kane and I are already registered, though our registration might need some updating."
Lucius passed the woman his and Rena's guild cards they received back in Pelith all those years ago. Neither of them had visited any guilds in the time since, so now was as good a time as any for them to renew the information.
"Ah, so Lady Kane will need her surname changed. Yours will need added... oh, that's strange..."
"What seems to be the matter?" Desmond asked from his seat, a few positions away from the receptionist.
"Oh, it's just that we did not receive notice of a party being disbanded, yet there hasn't been activity recorded for any of your party for the last four years..."
"That makes sense." Lucius sighed. "Go figures the bitch would ditch their disguises after trying to kill me. Seem's like she thought I wouldn't die so easily."
"What do you mean?" Rena asked.
"Don't know, don't care. When I find her, I'll be sure to ask her as the light of life slowly drains from her eyes." Lucius stated coldly.
A light knock on the door indicated the receptionist had returned, so they allowed her inside. She quickly went over the standard rules and guidelines of being an adventurer, then threw on a few additional rules that came with being a student applicant to the guild.
The only major differences were known failure fees and the registration expired after six months of non-activity for the guild. The temporary registrations could be upgraded to permanent registration upon submission of documentation of either graduation from the academy or dismissal.
No one else seemed to have any questions, so they bid their goodbyes to the receptionist and headed to the nearest carriage company to reserve a ride to the Grimspire ruins.
Grimspire was given that name because there was a singular massive tower that was somehow still standing even though the ruins were estimated to be in the realm of two thousand years old. No one knows what the ruins used to be called, how big it truly was, or really much of anything. The only known fact was that it was a city belonging to the long-extinct demon race.
Renting a wagon out that far, especially since it was not a regular stop, was rather expensive. The final fee landed at almost two thousand gold coins to cover most of the distance. Even then, they only stopped at the nearest village with a dedicated road, so there would still be some walking required.
Desmond was about to offer to pay for it, but Lucius declined. "Actually, do not worry, I will cover the expense."
"Oh, how wealthy are we? Honestly, I'm alright if we go back to being adventurers to live. That was my original plan anyway, but just out of curiosity?" Rena asked.
Lucius thought back to the last count of their treasury and then did some mental math on the family's assets and businesses that were not as liquid as their coinage. It took him a few minutes to think of an answer, which was starting to worry Rena.
"I think last count was somewhere in the range of two or three billion gold, give or take a couple million. Then we have a bunch tied up in some bars, inns, transport businesses... oh, there's a joint venture for a salt mine that we co-own with Kalliope's family. I don't really have numbers on value for those right now."
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His answer dropped the jaws of everyone in the group. "So yeah, no need to worry about me," He continued, "However, since technically I'm on assignment from the King of Eroa. This is classified as a business expense. King Verdayl will cover the bill of all related costs."