“Thank me?”
“You healed Tiermina’s sickness and encouraged her to marry Gentz, didn’t you?”
“I did, but why are you thanking me?”
“First, it seems that you used a valuable medicine from your hometown to heal Tiermina’s illness.”
Since it might be bad if word got out that I’d healed her with magic, I asked Gentz and the others to say I’d healed her with expensive drugs.
“Tiermina was a former adventurer, so I was worried about her illness,” the Guildmaster continued.
“Are you saying you were involved with having Fina work at the guild, too?”
“I thought it was the least I could do. I still couldn’t publicly hire her, so we only brought her in when we had a lot of work. That’s why I was grateful to see you bring in so many wolves. You’re still giving her work, aren’t you?”
“Only because I wanted to.”
“That’s not the only thing. I was worried Gentz would pine for that woman all the way to the grave. Between Roy, her illness, and the kids, he needed the push from you to feel like he had a place with her. I wanted to tell you that. Thank you.”
“Don’t worry about it. I sort of coerced them to get married for Fina’s sake.”
“It was kindhearted coercion. In any case, we don’t have to worry about him anymore, and he can devote himself to his work now.”
It was possible that Gentz and the Guildmaster didn’t just have a boss-subordinate relationship. They didn’t seem like they used to be in the same party together, though.
“If that’s all you need me for, I’ll be heading back.”
The moment I tried to stand up from my seat, there was a knock at the door.
“What is it?”
“Excuse me.”
A guild worker bobbed her head.
“Guildmaster, Lord Cliff Fochrosé has arrived. May I bring him to you?”
The worker glanced at me. I guessed she couldn’t make an aristocrat wait, even if the Guildmaster was busy with me. What kind of business does Cliff have with the Guildmaster? I thought.
“We just finished,” I said, “so it’s fine.”
The worker looked at the Guildmaster. He gave a small nod.
“Then I will call him in.”
The worker left the room.
“I’ll head out, too.”
“Yeah, sorry for calling you in.”
I stood up from my seat and, the moment I tried to leave the room, the door opened.
“Sorry for coming in so early.”
Cliff came in through the door. Our eyes just barely met.
“A bear? Oh, Yuna.”
I gave him that little half-nod head-bob you use when you want to do the bare minimum to greet them politely. The moment I tried to pass him by, he called out to stop me.
“This is perfect timing. Could you hear me out too, Yuna?”
He grabbed my shoulder, pulled me back into the room, and had me sit down.
“So then, what is it that brought you here so early in the morning, Lord Cliff?”
“You can be informal like usual.”
The Guildmaster looked at me.
“You don’t have to worry about Yuna.”
“Well, if you’re the one saying it, then I get it. What’s brought you to the adventurers’ guild?”
The Guildmaster’s tone warmed.
“I had something I needed to ask you. You know that the king is celebrating his fortieth birthday next month, right?”
“I don’t think there’s a body in the whole country who doesn’t.”
I didn’t. Regardless, it looked like that was happening.
“I don’t have anything good to offer him for the occasion.”
“In that case, ask the merchants’ guild.”
“I already went to the merchants’ guild, but they didn’t have something that would please the king. There’s no appeal in offering something that he could buy with money. I was wondering whether you had any rare swords, armor, or tools.”
“We pass all our goods along to the merchants’ guild. You’ve already seen it all.”
“Of course. I just came to make sure. So, as my second idea, Yuna, I wanted to ask you…”
“Ask me what?”
I got a bad feeling from this.
“Have you got anything rare? Something like that bottomless bag of yours? Or an item that can summon mounts?”
“Sorry, but I don’t. I don’t intend on turning over mine, obviously.”
If he forced me to, all I could do was run away.
“In that case, could you make something? Like the bear house. I gave it a look some time ago—it’s quite impressive. Of course, we can’t move something that big, but it’d be wonderful if you could whip up a small one.”
Ummm, I thought, it’s not like I can’t make one.
I could go back to the well of Earth conveniences and make something like the blow dryer. Then again, maybe they’d already figured out all the appliances I knew I could make—or maybe not. I was coming up empty, and I didn’t want to stick out by making something bad, either.
For the time being, I looked into the bear storage to see if I could find anything good.
.........
......
...
Yeah? I thought. I’d hit on something promising.
“You came to the adventurers’ guild for something rare, right?”
“Yeah.”
“In that case, how’s this?”
I pulled the sword I’d taken from the goblin king from my bear storage.
“And this is?”
Cliff and the Guildmaster looked it over.
“It’s the goblin king’s sword.”
“Really!”
There was no mistaking it so long as I had bear identification on my side.
“I heard about the affair with the goblin king, but to take its sword? Unheard of.”
Their reaction was much better than I’d expected.
“Anyway, we need to check whether it’s real.”
The Guildmaster brought over a worker who could appraise it. An elderly man immediately came over and turned it over in his hands, feeling out the blade and hilt.
“There is no doubt about it.”
“I see, thanks. You can go now.”
The appraiser lowered his head and left the room.
“Can you present this to the king?”
“Yes, it’s more than rare enough.”
“How rare can it be? Goblin kings aren’t that hard to come by.”
“They don’t all have swords like this. I don’t know the details, but apparently they begin as normal swords; the mana from the goblin king carrying it runs through the sword and alters it
