Chapter 364: The Guild Master

Chapter 364: The Guild Master

I made my way back to the mansion, carrying Pochi on my back and Lina in my arms. Then, after putting both of them to bed, I teleported to the hideout of the Resistance. Pochi will probably whine about me leaving her behind later, but who the hell cares? Her fault for getting drunk!

It’s pretty late into the night now, but Warren doesn’t seem to take any issue with that, maybe because I told him in advance that I had another appointment before this.

“Good evening, Asley.”

“Sorry for being late, Warren.”

“Don’t worry about it. I understand that you’re a busy man. Now, this way — everyone is already here.”

“Everyone...?”

Hmm? Are Trace and Irene taking part in the meeting as well? This late into the night? Or did the Guild Master bring along his subordinates?

Warren led me to the hideout’s meeting room. Going through the entrance, I was welcomed by some unexpected characters.

“GAHAHAHA! And now the average age of the people in this room just shot WAY UP!”

Holy shit, check out those epic pecs and biceps! And good God, I want to throw my arms around those– actually, no, I don’t. Still, I was surprised by who the owner of that wild beast of a voice was.

“Sir Charlie!?”

“Well, well! I’m honored that you recognize me, boy!”

That’s Charlie, one of the Six Braves, former leader of the Duodecad Conference, famous as the Thousand Morphing Blade. He’s also the previous Headmaster of the Warrior University — the title now belonging to Dragan — and currently serves as the Brigadier of the Royal Capital Warrior Guardians. There’s probably no one who doesn’t know him. He’s also the very man who killed Baladd’s mother... in a normal monster hunt, that is. No hard feelings.

The room contains quite a few other interesting people, too — a total of seven, including Charlie.

“Hello, Asley. It’s been quite a while, hasn’t it?”

“Sir Argent... it’s been a while, yes.”

Argent of Team Silver General... Blazer’s grandfather and the leader of what’s probably the strongest private adventurer organization in the War Demon Nation. As far as I’ve been told, the founding members of Team Silver — Blazer, Betty, and Bruce — used to belong to this team, too. Now that we have War Demon Emperor Vaas with us, it makes sense that he’d agree to join our side... I guess.

I only met him once before, a little bit south of Beilanea while on my way to my Rank S evaluation trials. Still, I could tell right then that he was ridiculously powerful — truly the embodiment of the phrase ‘experience comes with age’.

“Sir Dragan.”

“Now, unlike the others, it has not been long since we last met... well, technically just a little over a month, at any rate.”

Dragan the Dainty Tiger, one of the Six Braves and Headmaster of the Warrior University... The fact that he’s here suggests that he had indeed done his investigation on the conspiracies of the Nation that I not-so-subtly hinted at for him. Pretty sure he said something along the lines of not being able to believe it unless she saw things for himself, too.

And since he’s here, I wonder what his apprentice is up to... that young man Egd, who’s always not-so-subtly had a crush on Lina. Last I heard, he was working under Charlie as a Warrior Guardian.

“And...”

“Currently, Sir Argent and Team Silver General are also preparing to move their operations to T’oued. As for the Adventurers’ Guild... we plan to have them assist us behind the scenes.”

Warren proceeded to start laying out his upcoming plans.

Team Silver General in T’oued, huh? Sounds good to me. Their capabilities haven’t really been shown to the public all that much before. With Argent and his people working in the same scene, Team Silver is sure to have some good motivating competition.

And the Adventurers’ Guild working behind the scene is... only natural, I suppose. Their maintaining a neutral stance is what has enabled them to branch out to various nations thus far. Countless branches exist in the War Demon Nation, of course, and they all have to keep their own operations running, so we can’t expect them to focus their resources to help up.

“What kind of assistance, specifically?”

I asked, prompting Scott to turn to me and explain,

“Well, it’s not like the Adventurers’ Guild is an all-powerful organization, you know. We’ll still be working on our main mission — which is to protect the local civilians. What’s different is that we have received access to Teleportation Spell Circles thanks to Sir Warren here. That will enable easy, untrackable communication among each of our branches. In turn, it helps the whole organization within the War Demon Nation to quickly take action against suspicious activity – and detection, too, though all my staff are already super good at doing that. Hah!”

True, the Guild does have many capable people like Duncan working for it — goes to show how good the leader is at choosing his workers, eh?

But wait... doesn’t the Adventurers’ Guild already have access to the Teleportation Spell? ...Well, actually, he said he ‘received’ the ‘Spell Circles’ — which might mean the ones they had before couldn’t necessarily be used freely. There might be people who can’t use Telepathic Calls, too. The Teleportation Spell, on the other hand, can be used by anyone and will stay up after being cast as long as it’s not destroyed by some external impact. That’s sure to give a great deal of long-term tactical advantages.

“And I just happened to get some excellent new recruits, you see.”

Saying that, Scott looked in the direction of Catherine and Jacob.

“Huh? So you two will be working as the Guild’s staff members?”

“What, you got a problem with that?”

“I have absolutely no interest in joining the Resistance or any similar organizations. It puts a stain on my career’s records.”

Damn, these two are already thinking of making the next move in their careers! Well, at least it looks like the Adventurers’ Guild is up their alley, seeing that it’s an international organization with a neutral alignment.

I mean, they probably wanted to avoid going somewhere that does background checks — and at this point, they sure as hell won’t find a better-paying job back in the War Demon Nation, either.

If everything goes well, though, War Demon Emperor Vaas will regain his authority over the Nation. Whether or not Catherine and Jacob’s records will be considered ‘clean’ as a result of that, though, remains to be seen.

“The Warrior University will take a similar course of action. We could try and alter the way we teach things, but Beilanea is not exactly known for the flexibility of its ways. Change will not be so easily achievable.”

“GAHAHAHA! Leave the rest of the Duodecad to me — I TOTALLY GOT THIS!”

“I foresee you having the most difficulty persuading Sir Stoffel, though...”

I nodded to both Dragan and Charlie’s statements.

Then, the moment the name ‘Stoffel’ — the Blank Mask of the Six Archmages — was brought up, even Irene and Catherine had a notably... negative reaction. Whoever he is, he must be quite an eccentric character. I should keep that in mind.

“Now, moving on to the next topic... Asley would like to discuss something.”

Uh, no, I didn’t have any discussion planned for today, actually.