Chapter 10: The Guild Was Made of Stone

The guild was made of stone. Its limestone walls were most likely white once upon a time, but they were now a filthy gray.

Angeline entered the guild early in the morning, stifling a yawn, only to find the lobby in quite a clamor. There were far more people gathered than usual.

She took a sweeping glance and found plenty of faces she had never seen before. Some of them stared at her, rather rudely. When she glared at them, they glared back angrily, only to turn pale after their friends whispered something in their ears.

“Who are these guys supposed to be...” Angeline wondered, heading to the counter with a furrowed brow. She singled out Anessa and Miriam from the crowd in front of the counter and tried to call out to them, but the place was too boisterous for that.

Suddenly, she turned her eyes to the opposite side of the crowd, where a muscular old man wearing a weathered military cap and an Inverness cape was lifting up Guild Master Lionel by the scruff of his neck. Lionel looked even more worn out than usual—his stubble was thicker, and there were unhealthy-looking rings under his eyes.

“How sloppy can you be?!” the old man boomed. “Lionel! Are you even trying?!”

“Yes, well, Mr. Cheborg, I’m actually doing everything I can, despite how it may look... The abnormal fiend outbreaks are causing quite a bit of trouble. Also, you don’t have to be so loud.”

Seeing how pathetic Lionel acted, a spindly old man in a loose robe and a long white beard sighed. “How pathetic of you to let the situation get so bad you needed to call us in... Albeit, we might have some obligation in this case...”

Angeline raced forward joyfully. With one leap, she cleared the crowds and landed in the midst of the two old men.

“Muscle General! Old Man Silver!”

The two old faces lit up once they saw Angeline.

“Oh, Ange! Glad to see you out and about!”

“Of course... Who do you think you’re talking to?”

“Aha ha ha ha ha! You haven’t changed!”

The Muscle General—or rather, Cheborg—cackled thunderously as he chucked Lionel aside and started smacking Angeline on the back. She shook with each impact.

The tall old man grabbed Cheborg by the shoulder. “Oi, Cheborg, don’t hit Ange with that stupid strength of yours. I feel sorry for her.”

“Eh?! What?! You say something, Dortos?!”

“Don’t scream in my ears, fool!”

“Well, these days, see! My ears, they’ve been leaving me, see!”

“Why does that mean you have to shout?! Good grief... I’m glad you look well, Ange.”

Angeline smiled, seeing that the two of them hadn’t changed one bit. They were both former S-Rank adventurers, in their mid-sixties to early seventies—though they still looked like they were in splendid shape. They stood spry, with their backs straight.

Having been in the trade for close to fifty years, they retired roughly two years prior. And Angeline, who by that time had already begun to make a name for herself, quickly became a close friend of theirs.

These men, both feared on the battlefield, were like doting grandparents around her, and Angeline was quite fond of them too. Cheborg was known as the Destroyer, though his splendidly tempered muscles had earned him his other name from Angeline. He had apparently once been a soldier of Estogal, though his old cap was all that remained of those days. His arms—that had burst their way out of his torn sleeves—were both tightly packed with spell-bound tattoos, and he was a capable fighter who had pulverized many a fiend with his fists backed by muscle and magic.

Dortos was called Silverhead, as he wielded a silver spear. While slender and flexible, his body boasted three times the strength of any normal man, and he nimbly wielded with one hand a spear that would otherwise take two grown adults to carry. His spearmanship was the best in all of Estogal, the number of fiends he’d defeated already far beyond count.

Angeline began swinging on Cheborg’s arm. “Are the two of you...making a comeback?”

“Course we are! Just look at how sloppy the young’uns are being!”

“It can’t be helped. I can’t just sit back and watch as so many fiends come out of the woodwork.”

As soon as Dortos had said that, Cheborg burst into hearty laughter. “Aha ha ha ha! Quit trying to look all mature, Dortos! I know you’re just raring to go on a rampage!”

“Silence. I don’t want to hear that from you.”

“Hmm... This is good news...” Angeline tilted her head. “But why did you retire anyways? You look healthy enough.”

“Well of course, I needed to dote on my great-grandson! But these days, he’s saying ‘Shut up grampa,’ you know! He doesn’t let me look after him anymore! So I’ve got time to kill!”

“Could you pipe down a bit... I was simply exhausted. I never thought I’d live my whole life as an adventurer... But it looks like there’s no escaping it now.”

Angeline smiled, satisfied. Perhaps these unfamiliar faces in the lobby had been newly scouted to join the guild. She’d only started nagging him a week ago, yet the guild master had already gotten to work.

“You worked fast this time, Guild Master... Thank you!”

Still lying faceup from when Cheborg threw him, the guild master powerlessly laughed. “Ha ha... Yeah... It’s half because of your pestering, but this old man did his best. I had to use those crazy expensive crystals to get in contact, then I negotiated with the lord and finally managed to put in a request from the city of Orphen, and it looks like my application got through. So they’ll be mobilizing an army and...well, thanks to that, the receptionists are all groggy because they can’t go home, and the guild’s funding has run short. And this old man’s wallet is empty too... How am I supposed to survive tomorrow?”

“Normally, I would say, ‘You should have done it sooner,’ but what’s done is done. I forgive you...”

Lionel sprung up, scratching his head with a sour face. “I mean, hear me out. We haven’t had an outbreak in the last hundred years. Our obligatory service was reduced to a formality, and even the central guild office didn’t have a manual for emergency situations. How was I supposed to know what to do...and who could have guessed it was going to get this bad? Central’s full of hardheads who shout at me to do stuff, then shout at me for having done that stuff, and this old man just doesn’t know anymore.”

Dortos narrowed his eyes, stroking his beard. “That still doesn’t explain your slow work, Lionel.”

“I’m well aware of my own incompetence.” Lionel sighed. “But I’ve been doing as much as an incompetent can do.”

“Your failing is how you never rely on others in those cases. You only reached out to us after Ange told you...”

“For what it’s worth, I contacted my old buddies in the imperial capital. But it would take at least a month to get here—nah, two months at this time of year, so they’re taking their time...”

“That’s why you need to act early. Has gaining status made you go daft?”

“You’re harsh, Mr. Dortos. I’m already in tatters here. Please be kind...” Lionel’s head slumped down.

Meanwhile, the receptionists were shouting in the lobby, directing the newcomers around. They filtered out with nods and cracked knuckles.

There were roughly thirty people left around the counter, and they all seemed to be AA-Rank or higher. Angeline noticed another S-Rank adventurer she hadn’t seen lately with his party. They had been running all over just as busily as she had, it seemed. However, there were supposed to have been two other S-Ranks as well—had they finally grown sick of Orphen?

Once only the higher ranks were left, Ange knew most of them and greeted a few. She saw a dozen or so elderly members—Cheborg’s and Dortos’s parties. All were past their sixties, having completely retired, yet the mere sight of them standing there spoke volumes of their legacy. They weren’t high-ranking adventurers for nothing.

Miriam and Anessa came over to Ange, their eyes wide as they stared at the reinstated parties.

“Morning Ange... That’s quite an assortment.”

“Morning. It’s pretty amazing.”

“Morning both of you... This is reassuring.” Angeline excitedly patted them on the shoulders.

“So what job am I supposed to do?” Dortos stroked his beard. “If you want me to stand around here until the next Calamity-Class appears, I’m leaving.”

Lionel scratched his head and frowned. “We don’t have the luxury for that. I’ve got you all together to strike at the source.”

“The source... You located it?”

“Word just came in yesterday and it’s not confirmed.” Lionel shrugged. “Even I don’t want to believe it, but it’s a demon.”

The adventurers were astir. Rumors of a demon’s revival had been going around for a while now, but everyone thought it was complete nonsense. Surely they only existed in legend.

“Is that true...?” Angeline leaned in.

“Again, no confirmation. There’s a limit to what I can investigate on my own, so I’m having someone else confirm it now.”

“Hmm? Guild Master, you investigated on your own? You didn’t just sign some papers?”

“Pretty much... I mean, everyone working at the guild’s a civilian, so I can only count on them to push pencils. If all our active adventurers are occupied, the old man’s gotta put in a bit of elbow grease. But I had to negotiate with the central guild and the lord whenever I had a spare moment, and I still had loads of paperwork to do, so I wasn’t getting far...”

“But you could’ve sent a lower rank adventurer or something...”

“No—how could I send a low-ranking adventurer to a place that’s causing Calamity-Class fiends to pop up? I’ve assigned them where it’s safe, not that there are many of those places these days...”

“But...what about the high-rank parties on their off days?”

Lionel offered a bitter smile. “Ms. Ange, an investigation won’t end in a day or two... As it is, they’re ticked off with being sent all over the place. If I put a request on top of that, this old man will be murdered in his sleep. I already have more than a few adventurers who left our guild in a rage...”

“Then what about the guild instructors...”

“Our instructors only deal with F-, E-, and sometimes D-Rank. They’re A-Rank at best. There’s a possibility they would be up against something AA-Rank and above, so I couldn’t risk sending them... I’ll level with you here—our high ranks are more of the genius types than the hard-working types. They suck at teaching.”

“Ah, then, what about requesting adventurers from Estogal...”

“Ms. Ange... You know how requests work—whoever issues the request has to pay. If a person puts it in, a person pays. If a town puts it in, a town pays. And, if the guild issues a request, we have to use our guild budget, right? We are currently paying all the high-ranking adventurers a fixed salary to keep them with us, and the requests keep chipping away at our funds. The point is, we don’t have enough finances to call in high-ranking adventurers from elsewhere. I got some help at first, but when the money ran out, that was it. That’s just how it is with adventurers.”

“B-But we’re all under the same guild, right...? You could say you’ll pay when the money comes in...”

Orphen’s guild was already taking on work from the guilds in other towns. Angeline had taken those jobs a number of times.

Lionel awkwardly scratched his cheek. “I tried...but adventurers are more pragmatic the higher up they get. Who in their right mind would risk their life for free? I really am sorry for sending you all over the place because I couldn’t turn them down.”

“I was paid for that, so I don’t mind... But even if the adventurers are like that, what about the bonds between guilds? Don’t they have an obligation or moral duty to help us?”

“The central guild has it set up so the ties between guild branches are actually pretty weak. Money speaks louder than any vague promises. There are a lot of vested interests, and the higher-ups really want to keep their jobs, you see. In any case, what adventurers want most is money, and the guilds on the outskirts are strapped for cash too, so they’re not up to work for free without guaranteed results... You know, I paid everyone here handsomely, but they still left. What does that say about me? I’m going to cry...”

“Then...you’ve been doing it all alone?”

“More or less... Thanks to that, I’ve had to take on a few Calamity-Classes alone, and I haven’t gotten a proper night’s sleep in half a year, and I’m all worn out... I never pushed myself this hard when I was still an adventurer, did I?” Lionel heaved a large sigh and finished with a powerless laugh. “But I never thought all that training I did in secret after I lost to you would actually come in handy...”

Angeline would occasionally demand to see Lionel to complain. However, Lionel was generally out, and Angeline would convince herself he was only pretending. As it turned out, he was apparently off looking into the source of the outbreaks alone. As this was going on, he was also receiving claims and complaints from the adventurers, the central guild, and the lord.

The guild’s system that had operated just fine in times of peace fell to pieces once something went wrong. However, peace had gone on for so long that various vested interests were formed and the system could not be overturned so easily. The fiends continued appearing, while Lionel was in the middle, receiving criticism from all parties. As expected of a former S-Rank, he endured and kept working under those circumstances.

He still prioritized the powerless. I guess he’s a slacker and a slow worker, but he’s got an awkward sort of kindness to him, Angeline thought. Then she turned sullen.

“You could have just told me...”

“No... I didn’t want to sound like I was making excuses. I know I’m telling you now, but—”

“But it’s not like you were doing nothing, right? Now I look like the idiot for getting on my high horse and lecturing you... I’m sorry, Guild Master...”

Seeing her dejectedly lower her head, Lionel scratched his cheek again. “Ha ha, it’s fine, perfectly fine. You weren’t wrong, Ms. Ange, and it’s true I’m incompetent... Not to mention, you were the only one who scolded me like that. Normally, they just leave without a word once they’ve had it with the guild. But you were honest and upfront, right? That was a nice push on the back. Thank you.”

“Hmph...”

“Aha ha ha ha!” Cheborg laughed, roughly patting her downcast head. “Don’t worry about it, Ange! When the adults all stand around doing boring adult stuff, the kids charge forward and move the world! We wouldn’t be here if you hadn’t pushed him! Lionel! Why didn’t you call us before you went off doing crazy things on your own?! I don’t think you’re cut out to be guild master!”

Dortos nodded, gently patting Angeline’s shoulder. “He’s right, Ange. It’s his own fault for letting the situation get so bad that the guild master had to personally go out. It’s usually inconceivable for an adventurer to give up on a guild and run away. This is all his habitual slacking coming back to bite him.”

Lionel hung his head, crushed by the words of the two old hands.

“You’re too harsh, both of you. In the first place, I’d call the country and central guild system defective... No matter what I tell them, those bigwigs at central and the lord only think about shirking responsibility and cutting budgets—what am I supposed to do? I was an adventurer, I never studied for this. How am I supposed to compete with all those sly old badgers...”

“Eh?! What?! You say something, Lionel?!”

“Fine, whatever! C’mon now! I’ll explain on the way!”

Lionel squared his shoulders as he stomped out of the building. The gathered old soldiers burst into laughter as they followed, and Angeline’s party left with them.

○

The sunlight hit them as they walked out. There hadn’t been any thick clouds these past few days, and while the wind was chilly, the sun was warm. Some bits of melting snow lingered on the road.

The party Lionel led left the city, dividing into separate carriages to head east. There were more soldiers on the ramparts than usual, making it clear that the lord was mobilizing the army. Angeline watched with a sour face.

“Why does it take so long to move their army?”

“It takes a lot of time and money to move an army, apparently. That’s why the requests come to the guild instead. It’s like it’s the guild’s job to defend the territory from fiends now,” Anessa answered.

Miriam nodded. “That wasn’t a problem until now, though. If slacking worked out for them for so long, they’re going to be slow when they finally have to get moving.”

“Yeah, and I hear there’s a war brewing on the eastern border, so they’re putting most of their manpower into that. Not that any of that matters if their nation is crushed by fiends.”

“My thoughts exactly... But that should end today. I don’t know about demons or whatnot, but we’re going to destroy it!”

“Heh heh, I’m looking forward to this... But the old ones are here, so they might get to it first.”

“I can’t lose... Let’s show them what the active adventurers are capable of.”

According to Lionel, a large mass of mana was detected in an abandoned dungeon near Orphen. Everyone had been expecting it to be quite a high-ranking dungeon, but it turned out to be E-Rank. Because of this, Lionel had initially assigned lower-ranking parties to its general area; these parties failed to detect the abnormality, and it went largely overlooked. This set the investigation back quite a bit.

The power from this mass of mana would seep through the subsoil and overflow at various hotspots, which would in turn influence the fiends and cause mass outbreaks, apparently.

Angeline pursed her lips, her elbow on her knee and her hand propping up her cheek.

“Mana travels through soil? I didn’t know that...”

Miriam did not look any less bemused. “Not usually. This demon’s mana must be incredible.”

“It must be a powerful foe... What kind of opponent could it be?”

“It doesn’t matter what it is... We will simply crush it.”

Anessa sighed at Ange’s cruel indifference. “I’m scared that it really will turn out like that...”

The carriage raced for just under an hour through a small forest and arrived at an expanse of hills. A cave in the side of the tallest one among them connected to what had once been an underground dungeon. However, it had lost its core quite a while ago and had been abandoned after that. Adventurers no longer went there, as there was no reason to do so.

This time, they would enter and hunt down the supposed cause of the mana accumulation—presumably a demon.

The carriages stopped, and the adventurers disembarked.

Angeline rubbed her aching behind, scowling at the dungeon entrance. She did not feel anything abnormal. Is there really anything here?

Suddenly, she noticed someone standing at the entrance with long, dull, gray hair, a thick coat, and a scarf. Whoever it was wore clothing so thick it hid every line of their body.

Lionel jogged up to them. “How was it, Ms. Maria? Did you sense anything wrong?”

“Nothing. But there’s definitely a distorted lump of mana in there. Someone set up a barrier so it couldn’t be detected from the outside, and whoever did it is a master of their craft. That’s why you’re not getting any mana or fiends out here.”

“I knew it... So what about the soil?”

“Thanks to the barrier, the mana’s got nowhere to go but down. It’s bleeding into the earth—no wonder the fiends are all excited. Good grief, how could you leave a delicate maiden out here alone? Cough, cough.”

Turning to him with a hacking noise was the displeased face of a seemingly young woman. Her comely visage gave off a somewhat listless atmosphere. While clearly a woman, when she stood next to Lionel it became apparent that she was quite tall.

Much like before, Angeline gleefully rushed up to the woman. “Granny Maria!”

“Cough, hack... Huh? Ange? That you? Still a brat, I see.”

“Are you all right, granny? How’s your illness...?”

“It’s terrible. Never felt worse. Cough... Yet that man still drags me out like this.” While she continued to complain, she didn’t seem very dissatisfied at all as she petted Ange on the head. She glanced at Anessa and Miriam as well. “Oi, girls, you getting on all right? You’re not looking very happy to see—” She choked mid-sentence and burst into another coughing fit.

Anessa quickly ran up and rubbed her back. “Don’t push yourself, Maria... You’re already at that age.”

“Hack... Shut it, I’m still a peachy sixty-eight.”

“Sixty-eight’s not peachy, ya old hag!” Miriam pointed and chuckled.

Maria glared at her. “Stupid disciple! What do you think you’re saying to your master?! Cough, hack!”

“Aha ha, it’s what you deserve for tormenting your disciples. Serves you right.”

“Damn brat... Hack, cough!” Maria’s anger got her into yet another coughing fit. Anessa hurriedly rubbed her back while Miriam gleefully laughed at her misery.

She was an S-Rank adventurer who had retired three years prior. She was Miriam’s instructor, a master magician called both the Dragonslayer and the Ashen. Owing to her great achievements in exterminating vile fiends and developing beneficial magics, her name was known not just in the dukedom, but throughout the Rhodesian Empire.

As her powerful mana had halted her body in time, she looked incredibly young for sixty-eight. However, when she slew the curse dragon, an S-Rank fiend, she was splashed with its blood and came under its curse. Her body was being eaten away, and she was tormented with permanent chills, spasmodic pain, and coughing. None of that changed the fact she was one of the empire’s greatest magicians.

Dortos and Cheborg came up. Dortos stroked his beard, looking pleasantly surprised. “Ah, Maria, he dragged you into this too?”

Maria clicked her tongue and narrowed her eyes. “Oh, Dortos... Pretty much. Good grief, what’s the use in gathering all these decrepit old folk? Cough, cough!”

Seeing her break into coughs once again, Cheborg shouted, “Maria! Still haven’t gotten over that fake sickness of yours?! Get a grip, lady!”

“It’s not fake, goddammit! Just die, you lump of—Hack! Cough, cough!”

“Eh?! What?! You say something, Maria?!”

“I told you to drop dead! Or I could kill you just as well myself!”

“Um...can I talk yet?”

Left in the corner by these belated reunions, Lionel piped up with a fed-up look on his face. The old ones smiled, signaling for him to go on.

He sighed. “Um, I had Ms. Maria look into it. There’s definitely a mass of mana in there that’s spreading through the soil. If we can take it out, I think these mass fiend outbreaks should calm down.”

“What should we do...? What’s the plan, Guild Master?”

“Yes... Consider this a normal dungeon exploration, and aim for the deepest part. It was originally E-Rank, so it shouldn’t be too deep. Though it’s possible the mana’s boosted the rank of the fiends in there... But, well, with so many strong fighters here...”

“Enough yapping! Point is, we blast our way through!”

“No, wait—”

Cheborg had raised his fist before Lionel could stop him. His cape fluttered in the wind, as all the magic circles on his arm burst into light, and he smacked down on the hill ahead of him. They were subsequently assailed by a fearsome shockwave, and more than half of the hill itself was blown to smithereens. Fragments of dirt and rock came down like rain.

“Ah, the barrier’s gone... Cough,” Maria muttered.

This was followed by an outpouring of fiends from the hole—all that remained of the dungeon entrance—wrapped in a sinister miasma. It was supposed to be an E-Rank dungeon, yet Angeline could make out B- and even A-Rank fiends.

Lionel held his head. “What have you done...”

“Aha ha ha ha! Saves us the trouble! Oi, demon, get out here!”

“Wait, Cheborg. You’re not getting ahead of me.”

Cheborg laughed and swung his fists, erasing every fiend that came before him. He burst off towards the hole. Dortos removed the cloth from his spear as he chased behind, skewering several nearby fiends in the blink of an eye. He no longer looked like a good-natured old man—he had taken on the visage of a warrior, and he seemed to be greatly enjoying himself.

Two old men had taken the merry plunge into a horde of fiends, tearing their way through without difficulty. Their elderly cohorts followed behind, slaughtering fiend after fiend with frightening competency. They all seemed so lively despite their age. Were they in such high spirits because all of them missed their days of battling fiends?

Looking back at the dumbfounded mass of younger, still-active adventurers, Lionel shook his head, clapped his hands together, and shouted, “Okay, how about we show our elders some respect! Go off, set the stage so your seniors can show their stuff!”

Regaining their composure at these words, the rest of the adventurers readied their weapons.