Chapter 267: 267 Do they… even sell Guild Houses?

From early morning, numerous laborers were coming and going throughout the streets of Labyrinth.

Though a monster invasion had swept through just a short while ago, to the people here, it was like an annual event.

As restoration work began immediately, the city that had been in shambles was rapidly regaining its original appearance.

“Coming through!”

“Watch out!”

Carts piled high with monster corpses continued to pass along the road.

“Harpy, isn’t it…?”

“It’s my first time seeing this many.”

The sight of merchants staring in wonder was also noticeable throughout the streets. These weren’t the usual merchants who did business in Labyrinth, but merchants from other cities who had traveled from outside.

Right now, Labyrinth was literally overflowing with rare monster materials. To restore the city, the monster corpses had to be disposed of as quickly as possible, and with such a large quantity, a drop in price was inevitable.

It was only natural that merchants from all over the continent flocked here, aiming for this period to acquire monster materials cheaply.

The period immediately following a monster invasion is also when Labyrinth enjoys its biggest boom of the year. It’s often said that half of the work in Labyrinth is created because of the invasions.

Similarly, it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that half of the vast gold Labyrinth possesses is generated during this time.

Ian walked through the streets filled with such chaos and vitality and arrived in front of the Guild.

Receiving his first summons from the Guild since the invasion ended, Ian visited for the first time in a while. Having made an appointment in advance, Ian greeted a staff member he recognized and was able to go straight up to the second floor.

“You’ve come.”

Camilla, with documents piled high on her desk, welcomed Ian.

“You look busy.”

“Mercenaries must have it nice, with nothing to worry about.”

Ian sat in the chair placed in front of the grumbling Camilla. She was so frantically busy that she didn’t even have time for the usual leisurely talk. Camilla immediately handed Ian a document.

“The cleanup of the underground waterway is finished.”

“It finished faster than I thought?”

“Yeah. Since there were no remaining monsters, we finished the restoration work right away.”

Outside the city walls, it was still a long way from being cleared. They had to pull out, collect, and dismantle the corpses piled like mountains one by one. Though work continued day and night, the end was not in sight.

In comparison, slimes melt away when they die, leaving no corpses behind. Since all they had to do was collect the loot, it was only natural that it was finalized first.

“And since yours was the only mercenary group involved, it was nice that the shares weren’t complicated.”

The document Camilla handed over was the loot settlement for the monsters defeated in the underground waterway. Normally, it was a document where the names of participating mercenary groups would be listed across several pages, but only Ian’s mercenary group was listed for the underground waterway.

Since Ian hadn’t separately recruited participating mercenary groups, Ian’s was the only group that took part in the defense of the underground waterway this time. Originally, they would have had to adjust ratios and distribute settlement funds according to each group’s contribution, but there was no need for that in the underground waterway. All the loot belonged to Ian’s mercenary group, which had participated alone.

Ian accepted the final document Camilla handed him. The amount written there was… considerable even in Ian’s eyes.

Most of it was loot from ordinary slimes, but even that turned into an enormous sum when it reached this quantity.

“Congratulations. With this much, you could retire right now.”

“I still have things to do, so retirement is far off.”

“What else is there for a mercenary to do besides earn money?”

There probably weren’t many mercenary groups in the entire city that had received such a reward alone. Ian signed at the very bottom of the document.

“Here. If you go to the Guild’s warehouse, they’ll exchange it for gold coins… but for this amount, you’ll likely have to go to the central warehouse.”

After confirming Ian’s signature, Camilla handed over a certificate that could be exchanged for gold coins. Since it wasn’t an amount that could be pulled from the safe at the counter, he would have to visit the warehouse operated by the Guild to receive it. Camilla stole a glance at the amount on it. Honestly, it was a preposterous sum.

“Can you carry it back? I understand you’re still staying at an inn.”

Moving this gold to the inn, and storing it in an inn room, would both be impossible.

“How about just signing a contract and storing it in the Guild safe?”

There was no place here like a bank where one could easily deposit and withdraw money. If you didn’t own a private warehouse, you had no choice but to entrust it to the Guild again. Of course, the Guild is not a bank. They weren’t a place that kindly stored things for free, so one had to commission a storage request by paying a significant fee.

However, just as Camilla said, there was no way he could take this and store it in an inn room. He would either have to pay the fee and commission the Guild…

Or just spend it all right now so there would be no need for that.

“Could I use this right away?”

“Right away?”

Rather than paying a fee to store it at the Guild, Ian had planned to use it as much as possible. Fortunately, the settled amount was sufficient to carry out Ian’s plan. Ian handed back the certificate for gold coins, along with all the Guild coins he had received this time, to Camilla.

Camilla looked at the Guild coins Ian submitted along with the gold. If he were simply buying goods, paying in gold would be enough. Submitting coins as well was a request for special privileges in the purchase.

“Is there something among the Guild’s property you wish to buy?”

“Yes.”

What Ian pointed to was hanging on one wall of the office…

It was a district map of Labyrinth.

***

Rin, Mika, and Tanya. The three members of Ian’s mercenary group gathered in Ian’s room. Beside Ian lay a large pouch brought from the Guild. The mercenary group’s funds had a separate use, but what he brought now was the members’ share. It was an amount he had specially collected to settle their pay.

“This is your share.”

As the pouch Ian set down on the bed slumped over, gold coins spilled out. Everyone held their breath at the sight of the shimmering golden light. A mountain of gold coins was piled on the bed.

“I-is this really our pay?”

“Yeah. You three can split it.”

“You aren’t taking it all away as fees like last time, right…?”

“I’ve already taken everything out.”

Ian picked up a few gold coins and placed them in the hands of the three women. Everyone reflexively accepted them and stared blankly down at the gold coins held in their hands. They’re real gold coins…

They had heard rumors that one could easily gather gold coins by working in Labyrinth, but it was the first time for any of them to actually hold one in their hands.

“All of this…”

The gold coins contained in the pouch were an enormous amount. If the three of them split this, just how much… Rin suddenly noticed something strange. If it wasn’t split four ways, but was the share for three people… that meant Ian’s portion had been set aside separately.

“Wait, if this is our share… what about you, Captain?”

Naturally, a captain’s distribution ratio was larger than normal members, but besides that, the costs taken out for the group’s operating expenses and tributes were also significant. Since they had heard that the amount mercenaries actually receive is only a small fraction of the total reward… if each of them was receiving this much gold, just how much money had come into the mercenary group?

To the point where describing this as “like a mountain” felt silly—wouldn’t it be an actual mountain of gold coins? Rin reflexively swallowed hard.

“There was too much of that to bring back.”

“Did you leave it at the Guild? I heard they take a huge cut if you leave it there…”

“That’s why I just spent it.”

“What?”

Rin felt an immense sense of anxiety at Ian’s attitude, speaking of such an enormous sum as if it were nothing. She had thought the mercenary group was finally escaping its chronic deficit.

It was ridiculous for Rin, who was just a simple member, to worry about the group’s operations like this… but Rin hoped this mercenary group would last for a long time. Watching Ian’s precarious spending habits from the side made anxiety well up, like watching a bomb that could go off at any moment.

She had thought that since they earned this much money, they could finally relax and hold out for a while…

But he spent it all? That much?

“It’s a good thing, actually. Want to go take a look?”

“Go take a look?”

Everyone nodded with questioning faces.

***

The members followed behind Ian as they walked through the streets. If he hadn’t brought it directly, it must be something too big to carry. Rin tried to imagine what Ian might have purchased.

If he had to take them to show them… maybe it was a warehouse? Rin thought that was a fairly decent choice. It was quite inconvenient to sleep with all sorts of equipment crammed into an inn room.

While an inn was a good place for a comfortable stay, everything else was full of inconveniences. As they gained more and more belongings, the cramped and poorly secured inn room had many limitations.

If the mercenary group had a rented warehouse, things would become quite convenient. They would be able to keep better track of equipment and supplies than they did now.

But the place Ian moved toward was not the district where warehouses were clustered. Everyone followed Ian past the plaza, walking toward the center of Labyrinth. After a short while, the place Ian arrived at was in front of a large building located along the main road.

“This is… a Guild House, isn’t it?”

One of the many buildings owned by the Mercenary Guild. It was a Guild House said to be leased at a high price to mercenary groups that passed an evaluation.

“I heard this place is incredibly expensive…” Mika murmured, looking up at the Guild House building.

It was said that it was cheaper to outright take over an inn or buy a single house with the money it cost to rent a Guild House. But inns are cramped, and residential areas are far from the Guild.

However, this building, designed from the start for mercenary groups, was optimal for mercenaries to live in, and management was handled by the Guild. Its location was also near the Guild, which was good for mercenary group activities.

For those reasons, these Guild Houses located throughout Labyrinth were always popular despite their astronomical prices. To put it simply, they were like a symbol of a successful first-string mercenary group.

Rin’s eyes sparkled as she asked Ian. If he had brought them in front of such a Guild House…

“Did you rent a room here?”

“No. I bought it.”

“What?”

Everyone’s eyes converged on Ian.

“Do they… even sell Guild Houses?”

“If you give them what they ask for, they sell.”

Of course, they didn’t truly sell to just anyone. A bit of luck was required. For instance, if gold coins of unknown origin just happened to be in the Vice Guild Master’s drawer… and because of that, an approval stamp was accidentally placed on a document that originally should have been rejected.

Everyone looked up at the Guild House. It was a building so large they had to lift their heads to see it all, as the entire structure didn’t fit into a single glance. It was the first base of Ian’s mercenary group.

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