/
Later, Laurent met up with Lilianne.
They were at the cafe they always used for their meetings.
“Congratulations on winning the fair. I suppose it made for good advertisement?”
“It’s not that big of a deal. More importantly, I hear that you’re doing a great job at managing the dungeon. Isn’t that profitable in its own way?”
“As much as I would like for that to be the case, the truth is that Guardians of the Magical Tree alone can’t fully manage it. For now, we’re collecting a mining permit fee from the guilds affiliated with Golden Hawk, but they’ve got the advantage in economies of scale. In the long run, they have the upper hand in negotiations.”
“I see. Ordinary methods won’t work, then.”
For a moment, both of them sank into an uneasy silence.
Lilianne spoke, bringing up something she had wanted to say for some time. “Laurent-san, Golden Hawk is really bearing down on Guardians of the Magical Tree.”
“Yeah.”
“Before last month, all three dungeons that appeared every month would be conquered by Golden Hawk, so they used to think of us as just another insignificant little guild. On the surface, it looks like Golden Hawk and Guardians of the Magical Tree are rivals, but in truth, we are more or less in an alliance. However, this month, we conquered one dungeon, which provoked Lucius.”
Lilianne did not say it, but the true reason behind Guardians of the Magical Tree’s hardline stance against Golden Hawk was Laurent.
Golden Hawk was threatening to cut off their supplies of ores and items, as well as manpower for mining, if Guardians of the Magical Tree did not cancel their dealings with Arsenal of the Spirits.
“Arsenal of the Spirits is already feeling the pressure,” Laurent said. “Guilds that we’ve been friendly with until now are suddenly cancelling our partnerships or are refusing to trade with us. It’s getting difficult to even procure ores.”
“I thought that might be the case.”
“This is the way Lucius works. He pressures you on all sides to shake you up psychologically,” Laurent said. He looked Lilianne straight in the eye. “Lilianne-san.”
She stared back at him, unflinching.
“Does Guardians of the Magical Tree plan to yield to Lucius?”
Lilianne suddenly gave a gentle smile. “If we were going to cave so early on, we would never have entered into a partnership with you to begin with.” She took a sip from her drink. She sobered, and turned toward Laurent again. “Guardians of the Magical Tree will not give into Lucius’s coercion, nor will we part with Arsenal of the Spirits. You have my word.”
Laurent felt his anxiety lessen at that, and he smiled. “Thank goodness. That puts me at ease. With this, I can wage war against Lucius with one less thing to worry about.”
“So you’re resolved to do this.”
“Yes. I won’t back down by even a single step when it comes to facing Lucius. I’m throwing my full support behind helping Guardians of the Magical Tree to rise to the top.”
“Wonderful. Still, we’ve only got bad things coming our way right now. Even with backup from Arsenal of the Spirits, there’s no guarantee that we will be able to capture a dungeon next month. There is still a difference between the quality of adventurers in Guardians of the Magical Tree and Golden Hawk.”
“That’s true.”
“Given that, I have a proposition for you. How would you like to be hired as a special consultant for Guardians of the Magical Tree?”
“A special consultant?”
“Yes. Right now, Guardians of the Magical Tree only has one main attack force to its name. Normally, we would hardly be able to compete against Golden Hawk, which has three main attack forces. The difference in our fighting power is because promising adventurers almost all flock toward Golden Hawk.”
True. Everyone is just trying to get into the city’s biggest guild.
Not to mention, there were differences in salary and qualitative aspects like working conditions.
Even among adventurers of the same rank, Golden Hawk adventurers were paid almost twice as much as those from Guardians of the Magical Tree.
“We can’t do much about our applicants being of a lower quality, but we can establish a lead in the quality of our training. To be honest, Guardians of the Magical Tree is full of adventurers who aren’t making as much progress as we’d hoped,” Lilianne admitted. “It doesn’t matter how you do it, but I’m asking you to please pick out two or three people and give them some intensive training. We need a new ace, now more than ever. With your abilities, you could turn them into A -rank adventurers.”
“I get it, having an ace to build around is fundamental in unit formation. To make a new unit, an A -rank adventurer is absolutely essential
” Laurent folded his arms, deep in thought. “A special consultant, huh? I would be happy to do it, but is it really alright? I’m from an alchemist guild. Won’t people in your guild oppose having me as an adventurer’s instructor?”
Her reply was resolute and instantaneous. “I’ll deal with it.”
Laurent could feel her extraordinary determination.
It would be a race against time.
They were, financially, being pushed into a corner.
“
 Alright. I don’t know how much I can do with my abilities, but I’ll do it. I want you to be able to rely on me, too, even just a little.”
——
Deep within Golden Hawk’s headquarters, there was a room where the sound of metal being struck always resounded, filled with the scent of rusted metal.
The underground room was barely lit by a dim candlelight, but for dwarves that had lived in dark caves since they were born, the darkness was comfortable.
The dwarf who owned this room was Daevin, Golden Hawk’s one and only alchemist.
Not only was he excellent at silverwork, he had the skill [Metallurgy A ]. He was solely responsible for Golden Hawk’s weapons maintenance and development, as well as a whole other host of alchemy-related tasks.
The huge reduction in the amount of time it took to repair Golden Hawk adventurers’ defensive equipment and the rapid increase in their raiding frequency were none other the results of his hard work.
Daevin was also a superb adventurer, capable of holding his own in combat. He could undertake equipment repairs within dungeons, playing a vital role in raising a fighting unit’s perseverance.
Recently, however, he had been shut in his room, assigned to repair broken equipment nearly exclusively.
That day, just like other days, Daevin had been hammering away since dawn, repairing swords and armor pieces until he decided to take a breather.
He huffed, exhausted. “The amount of damaged equipment has increased lately,” he grumbled.
If the number of damaged weapons has increased, that means that there are adventurers running around in ill-fitting equipment. Or they’re taking on quests beyond their abilities. It must be because of the absurd quotas that b*****d Lucius is forcing on them.
Daevin sighed. “Damn it all. He’s just pointlessly increasing my workload. This is why black guilds
”
“Working in this gloomy place as usual, Daevin?” a woman’s high voice echoed, sharply distinct from the clatter of metal that the room had only known before.
Daevin turned toward the voice. It was Jill.
Daevin glanced at her, and immediately turned away again, refocusing on the armor.
“What business brings you to a place like this? It can’t just be that your armor is damaged. Not to mention you’re a fancy, up-and-coming adventurer. Shouldn’t you be busy doing PR?”
“I want to talk to you about something,” Jill replied, grimacing at the room’s darkness and bad ventilation. “You could request to have a light installed, you know. Isn’t it way too dark in here? Can you even see your work?”
“Your concern is unnecessary. I may live in the city, but I’m a dwarf. I’m used to darkness. The idea that I might get sloppy because of it is laughable. And I surround myself in this environment by choice, because I like it this way.”
“Right. I guess that’s fine, but
”
“What do you want?” Daevin had stopped hammering for a moment, but now he started up again.
“Laurent-san was expelled from Golden Hawk.”
“Yeah, I know.”
“Did you? This makes things quicker. Will you protest his expulsion, too?”
“Protest?”
“I can’t get it out of my head. The expulsion this time was weird.”
“
”
“At first, I heard that he’d been helping the enemy, but no matter how I looked at it, it was just an excuse. And I can’t accept the Guild Leader’s attitude toward all of this. There has to be another explanation. That’s the only thing I can think of. If we both protest—”
“You have no idea what’s going on, do you?”
“What?”
“I’ll make it simple. Laurent-san was trapped.”
“Trapped?”
“Toward the end of Laurent-san’s time at the guild, the equipment and weapons of the unit he was put in charge of were sent back here again and again. They were all heavily damaged. He was probably tasked with new adventurers, not given any decent items, and had impossible quests way above the appropriate rank thrust upon him. Then they pinned the blame all on him and kicked him out.”
“If you knew all that, then why didn’t you say anything? You owe him, don’t you?”
Daevin becoming the city’s best alchemist was the fruit of Laurent’s teachings.
At the time, Laurent had encouraged Daevin, who had not been seeing much growth, to participate in quests. Back then, assigning an alchemist adventurer to a unit was rare.
That opportunity had allowed him to rapidly build a deeper insight into an adventurer’s needs for their equipment.
After that, his alchemical skill had shot upward.
“Because there’s no point.”
“No point?”
“Lucius is wary of Laurent. He sees Laurent as an eyesore.”
“An eyesore?”
“You know Laurent-san. He’s just too good at what he does,” Daevin said with a resigned sigh. “Let’s say that you were one of the top brass. If all of the people Laurent-san trained were promoted, wouldn’t you be wary of having your position threatened? Not to mention, Laurent-san prioritised the development of the new recruits over meeting quotas, ignoring what management wanted. So for management—basically, Lucius—Laurent-san is an eyesore. The reason for expulsion was just an excuse. They just wanted him out, one way or another.”
“But that’s
 they expelled him for training people? That’s the biggest load of c**p I’ve ever heard. Despite all that Laurent-san has done for the guild, he’s being expelled? What about the others? Why didn’t a single person stand up for Laurent-san? Almost everyone in the main attack force owes something to Laurent-san’s appraisal skills!”
“It’s not unexpected. You won’t find better pay anywhere else, and nobody is going to go as far as to sacrifice their livelihoods for Laurent-san’s sake. And Laurent-san is Laurent-san. He would have been nothing but a regular member for the rest of time. If he produced good results, others would get jealous of some no-name, low-ranking member. It’s inevitable that there will be people who think that he is threatening their position. I warned him, you know. I told him that he was in a dangerous position. I asked him if he wanted to keep getting tossed around or if he wanted to take counteractive measures, like I was suggesting. Because there are some baffling people in this world who just need to be known as the best. But it was in one ear and out the other with him.”
“Are you saying it was Laurent-san’s fault?” Jill bit out.
“No, that’s not what I’m saying, but
 I just think that at the very least, he could have tried protecting himself.”
“Even if that was the case, why was it necessary to expel Laurent-san? He didn’t do anything wrong!”
“Well, it doesn’t matter anymore. The bridge between them is burnt. It would be far safer if you give up on Laurent-san’s return now.”
“Isn’t it messed up? Why did Laurent-san have to be expelled? It’s just messed up!”
Huh? Did she literally not hear what I just said?
Jill was just a little too pure.
She had yet to learn of the world’s callousness and contradictions.
Was I unclear in my explanation? But I was trying to explain it as simply and gently as possible.
“Let’s protest it. We can open the Guild Leader’s eyes,” Jill pleaded earnestly.
Daevin stared at Jill. It was like watching a trainwreck.
Laurent-san is something else, successfully training someone as obstinate as her. Well, it’s not like I can talk; I’m quite prickly myself.
“Yeah, I have no plans to protest or anything like that,” Daevin said shortly. He turned away and, without another word, began sharpening a sword.
For a moment, Jill simply glared at Daevin. Then, she stomped toward the door. “Fine, you ungrateful lout. If you won’t lift a finger, then I’ll work something out myself. I’ll show you.” That was all that Jill said before she swept out of the room.
Daevin could hear the fading sound of her footsteps echoing through the halls.
He sighed. “If Laurent-san had invited me, I’d quit a guild like this in a heartbeat. I would follow him anywhere. But he left for somewhere else without even saying anything to us, didn’t he?”
——
Laurent arrived at Guardians of the Magical Tree’s headquarters.
Their headquarters was within the large tree that towered over the city itself.
At the base of the gigantic tree, there was a hollow, with a door built into it.
Countless, birdhouse-like structures sat atop thick branches.
There were hollows throughout the trunk, and stairways had been built inside them that would allow people to move freely from building to building.
Fruits of all kinds grew on the tree branches. People in this enchanted tree would be able to obtain ingredients for stamina-restoring tonics, healing medicine, potions that would temporarily provide status buffs, and so forth. Ingredients for apothecary potions of every type that were indispensable for adventuring.
It was said that long ago, Guardians of the Magical Tree was founded by adventurers who had been defending against invading orc forces who wanted the tree’s fruits.
Now, the duty of protecting the enchanted tree was nothing but a nice story to tell, but the tree remained their stronghold where they continued operating out of.
At the trunk of the enchanted tree, next to the entry doorway, there was a wood nymph.*
(T/N: lit., wood person, gender ambiguous.)
Wood nymphs were monsters with humanlike upper bodies. They lived off of the enchanted tree, and in return, they served as the guild’s gatekeepers.
Laurent presented his entry pass to the wood nymph standing at the door. The ivy covering the door parted, opening up the passageway.
The passageway expanded into the lobby.
Unlike its grand external appearance, its interior was that of a normal, wooden building.
He walked over to the reception to inform them of his visit. In an instant, Lilianne hurried over to him.
“I hope I didn’t make you wait, Laurent-san.”
At the sight of her, the people in the lobby began to whisper.
She was the guild’s only A -rank adventurer—they wondered how important the person could the person she was personally welcoming be.
That was what their gazes seemed to say, at least, when they looked upon Laurent.
Laurent felt uncomfortable at the strange looks directed at him, but he shook it off and left the lobby, climbing up the stairs.
He was being taken to the Guild Leader’s office.
——
Guardians of the Magical Tree’s Guild Leader was a man with a receding hairline that announced his advancing age.
Once, he had been famous even among the city’s most prominent A -rank adventurers, but after he had assumed the Guild Leader role, he had devoted himself to running the guild. Now, he no longer resembled an adventurer in the slightest.
On the contrary, he was fidgeting and twitching anxiously, constantly wiping cold sweat from his forehead with a handkerchief. His portly body was squeezed into an important-looking chair.
“Guild Leader, this is the Appraiser, Laurent-sama whom I spoke of before.”
“I’m Laurent, professional Appraiser. Pleased to meet you.”
“O-Oh, so it’s, ah, you,” the Guild Leader said awkwardly. “Thank you for assisting us with the [Earth Stones]. I heard you’re also to thank for helping our Lilianne’s unique skill flourish. You’re younger than I expected, though. And you even established an alchemist guild despite being an Appraiser, of all things. Truly, you have a gift
”
Though the Guild Leader’s address was courteous, he only continued rambling on, flattery spilling endlessly forth.
Impatiently, Lilianne interrupted. “Guild Leader, I think Laurent-san is quite a busy person. Let’s get down to the special consultant business.”
“Er, yes, of course. But is this alright? He has to run his own guild already, and now there’s training our adventurers on top of that.”
“Guild Leader, you’ve already agreed to my terms. Instead of renewing my contract, you get him as a special consultant. Unless you’ve forgotten?”
“No, I remember. I just thought that Laurent-san shouldn’t overextend himself
”
“If it’s all clear, get on with the papers.”
“ Urk . Fine,” the Guild Leader said reluctantly, taking out the documents from the drawers of his desk.”
Laurent accepted the authorisation papers from the Guild Leader.
They stipulated that he had permission to access the public facilities in Guardians of the Magical Tree’s headquarters, as well as that he had almost full authority over training-related matters.
——
“It’s hard work to persuade your boss, huh?” Laurent said once they had entered the corridor and were out of the Guild Leader’s earshot.
“Quite. He’s not a bad person, but he can be indecisive. I would have liked him to be more dependable.”
Lilianne shut her eyes and rubbed her face with her hands, looking sad. She looked like she was trying to fend off a headache.
When he looked closely, he saw that there were faint, dark circles beneath her eyes.
It seemed that she wasn’t getting enough sleep.
Laurent couldn’t help but feel worried; she was usually spirited, her energy drawing the eyes of everyone in the room.
“Well, this is the seminar room. The guild members should already be in there,” Lilianne said, gesturing at a set of large doors.
In that brief moment, she seemed to shake off her tired expression, plastering her usual cheerfulness back on.
They passed through the large doors, which led into a room with walls and floors built to be more sturdy than others.
It was designed to endure combat practice, after all.
Just as Lilianne had said, there were thirty adventurers already gathered there.
When Laurent entered, all of them simultaneously stood to attention.
The members there came in all shapes and sizes, from warriors to magicians, healers to thieves. The only thing that they had in common was that they all had equipment below C -rank.
It seemed like just what Lilianne had said; they were adventurers whose progress had plateaued.
Wasting no time, Laurent Appraised the closest person to him, a blonde girl with a bob cut.
From the looks of her armour and sword, she was a warrior.
[Longsword] C -> C
[Shortsword] D -> D
[Shielding] D -> C
Currently, her capability as a warrior was below average. And even if she did reach the upper limits of her talent, she would be, at best, average.
Laurent turned his Appraisal onto her other skills.
[Archery] E -> A
[Silent Run (Stealth)] D -> A
[Hawk Eye] C -> S
[Steal] D -> A
[One Strike, One Kill] E -> A
Yikes.
Even though the girl had archery skills buried in her, she wasn’t equipped with a single piece of archer equipment.
“Everyone, from today onwards, he will be working with you as Guardians of the Magical Tree’s special consultant. His name is Laurent. He’ll be guiding your growth as adventurers, so if you have any comments or questions, please don’t hold back.” At Lilianne’s introduction, everyone glanced at Laurent nervously.
“Cool, let’s get started,” Laurent said. “You, the warrior. You’re first. Come on up.”
“Y-Yes, um, m-me?” The girl shuffled forward hesitantly.
“You’re an archer now.”
“Archer? I’m an archer?” she said, taken aback.
“Yup. You’ve got the potential to become an A -rank archer.”
I said that I would crush Golden Hawk, but
 when it comes down to it, this is the only thing I’m good at. I’ll churn out A -rank adventurers from this lot. That’s the only way I can fight.