Chapter 31
Elena turned around and headed for the guild headquarters.
The reception area at the guild headquarters had an entirely different atmosphere from the guild dining hall.
The place where clients and adventurers directly exchanged commissions was lined with clan adventurers waiting to secure them.
The main target for clan adventurers was hunting commissions.
Separate from the hunting commissions posted directly by the lord's castle, the Magic Association, Apothecaries' Guild, Cooks' Union, and temple also posted requests to procure materials.
Since the commissions paid well and came directly to the guild, clans needed to secure them through the guild before anyone else.
The guild, favored by the lord, auctioned commissions to the clans.
Whenever clan adventurers claimed large commissions through auctions in the central hall.
"Welcome."
Elena placed her hand on the wooden desk at the reception.
"I want to see the guildmaster."
She made the demand without preamble.
The receptionist recognized Elena, but answered with a bright smile, following the manual.
"Do you have an appointment?"
"An appointment?"
"An appointment is required in advance to meet the guildmaster. If this is an urgent matter, please submit it in writing. We will review it and arrange an appointment."
The receptionist's tone was polite but firm.
Under normal circumstances, Elena would have simply accepted that and moved on.
"The guildmaster drugged an adventurer and kidnapped him, yet I can't even meet her once?"
"Pardon?"
The receptionist's expression hardened.
"I can't comment on that matter. If you wish to meet her, please follow the proper procedure."
Though she couldn't hide her discomfort, the receptionist did not budge from the official line.
After dealing with countless adventurers, she couldn't accommodate every one of their demands, and once she started making exceptions, there would be no end to it.
Elena had brought up a rather awkward matter, but the receptionist's response remained unchanged.
Elena gripped the reception desk and shouted, her eyes brimming with tears.
"You took Uncle away first!"
Her tearful voice rang all the way to the central hall.
"Are you telling me all I can do is follow the rules?! I can at least lodge a complaint! Is being the guildmaster everything?! Does being the guildmaster mean you can kidnap people?!?!! The guild was the one that took someone away first!"
"E-Elena, that's not what we meant... P-please lower your voice..."
"Waaaaaaaaah!!!!!!"
Independent adventurers and clan adventurers noticed the commotion at the reception and turned to look.
As more eyes gathered, the receptionist's face grew darker.
The receptionist looked around for the manager, but the manager, usually so overbearing, had made a quick escape, leaving only an empty desk behind.
Just as Elena drew breath to cry even louder to attract attention—
"Let her in."
A sweet voice rang out clearly through the noisy sobbing from the second-floor stairs beside the reception.
Click. Click.
The sound of dress shoes descended the stairs.
A short-haired woman with black hair leaned against the stair railing and looked down.
Elena stopped crying and looked toward the person who had spoken to her.
Their eyes met.
She smiled.
"Elena, come upstairs. As it happens, I have something to discuss with you, too."
"Sniff."
Elena glanced once at the receptionist, then followed the short-haired woman up the stairs.
***
"Why did you kidnap Uncle?"
As soon as she entered the guildmaster's office, Elena spoke.
Rebecca sat down in her chair and crossed her legs.
"Is that what you were crying so bitterly about?"
"I just got a little emotional."
She hadn't meant to, but tears had burst out before she knew it, and she had been embarrassed afterward.
Rebecca propped her chin on her fingers.
The gaze scanning Elena was tinged with interest.
"As for why I kidnapped Eck..."
Elena glared fiercely at her.
Tension hung in the air, as though Elena had resolved to attack depending on the answer, but Rebecca remained at ease even after reading her intent.
"I wanted to give him a warning."
A strange smile spread between her red lips, and—
"You didn't notice even when I laced your drink with something. If someone had drugged you with ill intentions, you'd have died right there."
She unfolded one finger after another as she explained her intentions behind what had happened.
"If Eck had been his usual self, the dining hall would have been turned upside down the moment he noticed the drug. Jeina, who drugged him, would have been sent to the infirmary and left hovering between life and death, and he'd have gone around beating the adventurers who mocked him over this incident as if he were exterminating rats. The guild dining hall would have been unable to do business for quite some time. Of course, I, who gave the order, wouldn't have gotten off unscathed either. That's what the usual Eck is like."
She folded her outstretched fingers back in and clenched her fist.
"I intended to use that as an opportunity to restore discipline among the adventurers and reestablish Eck's position. This is the sort of place where, if an adventurer is looked down on, you never know who might stick a dagger in your back. That was my plan, but..."
She cut herself off and looked at Elena.
"In the end, it was some nameless B-rank adventurer who beat Jeina up, and you—not Eck—who turned the dining hall upside down."
Rebecca chuckled softly.
"How fascinating. How did you change Eck when I couldn't change him no matter how hard I tried?"
Rebecca's gaze slowly studied every feature of Elena's face.
"You're pretty, but you don't look all that different from me... Is it just a matter of taste?"
"Are you done?"
Elena's gaze held no warmth.
Whatever the reason, the fact remained that Rebecca had taken Uncle away.
"So? What do you want to do with me?"
Rebecca asked.
A brief silence.
It was all well and good that she had come to see the guildmaster, but she hadn't decided what to do after that.
She had come to protest, but Rebecca had finished explaining the kidnapping. From the way Rebecca spoke of understanding Uncle's circumstances and making him act accordingly, Elena realized that she had not intended to harm him.
But the fact that Rebecca had drugged and kidnapped Uncle continued to churn inside Elena.
Rebecca narrowed her eyes.
"If it were Eck..."
She folded her arms and said,
"He'd throw a punch first."
"Then I'll do the same!"
Elena kicked off the floor.
The expensive carpet tore and the flooring beneath it was gouged open. Her fist, wrapped in condensed mana, shot toward Rebecca's face.
The sound of air splitting slammed through the guildmaster's office.
Boom!
The wall of the guildmaster's office exploded.
Fragments of the wall flew everywhere.
"Ugh...!"
Elena was blown into the plaza in front of the guild and landed on its stone floor.
She staggered after nearly losing her footing on landing, then quickly regained her stance. She looked up at the wall of the guild headquarters where the guildmaster's office was located.
Rebecca stood beyond the hole in the guildmaster's office.
Two beasts stood beside her.
A bird with wings as large as Rebecca's scattered clusters of blue light, while a snake whose shadow seethed like flames coiled around her.
The beasts protecting Rebecca possessed mana that sent chills down the spine at a glance.
She murmured her assessment in a low voice.
"....I could have hit her."
Elena ground her teeth.
If the familiars hadn't intervened, her punch would have landed. No—if she hadn't been thrown all the way into the plaza, she could have counterattacked.
'The position was bad.'
But now that she knew Rebecca had means like that, the next attempt was worth trying.
Though it had only been a moment, she had seen each of the familiars' movements once.
They weren't anything special.
She quickly calculated what she was dealing with in her head.
But when she tried to rush back up the stairs, the guild employees blocked Elena's way.
She couldn't push through the layers of guild employees blocking her, nor could she bring herself to swing her fists at them.
Or should she regard them all as accomplices who had helped transport Uncle and smash them all to pieces?
"M-move!"
"W-we can't!"
"Move!"
"If you go in, you'll fight the guildmaster, won't you?! We can't allow that!"
Their hands were trembling.
They had either retired from adventuring after giving it everything they had or become guild employees because they lacked the talent to continue. Having heard what happened in the dining hall, they were afraid.
Elena looked at the fist she had raised toward the frightened people.
She stopped herself.
"Damn it..."
She couldn't bring herself to hit people who were afraid.
Elena relaxed the strength in her fist, let out a deep sigh, and turned away.
'Let's go to Uncle.'
She didn't think she could calm down without seeing Uncle.
She had a strong feeling that she would run into that woman again someday anyway.
***
When Elena opened the door to Bordeaux's smithy, the heat from the forge caressed her cheeks.
Elena had come to visit the smithy.
"Uncle Bordeaux."
Bordeaux was crouched beside the anvil, fiddling with something.
The dwarf turned his head, his eyes widening.
"Elena? What brings you here at this hour?"
"Nothing much. I just had something to ask you."
Bordeaux was holding a black-and-red sword.
He was shaping a piece of wood into a hilt.
Elena's gaze settled on the sword.
"By the way, what's that?"
"Ah, this?"
Bordeaux ran a hand beneath his nose and smiled with satisfaction.
"It's the masterpiece I made this time. I got some excellent materials recently, you see. I made it with those. I made it to enter the contest hosted by the lord. It's finally finished. Want to take a look?"
Elena took the sword from him.
Its considerable weight settled heavily in her palm.
The mana dwelling in the sword stimulated the nerves in her fingertips.
Elena's eyes swept over the blade.
Patterns like red veins were engraved across its pitch-black surface.
The sword's mana flowed along the grain that resembled tree rings.
This was different from the swords Elena had known before.
It couldn't even be compared to the sword she was currently using.
"What do you think?"
Bordeaux asked, scratching his beard.
His typically gruff dwarf voice was filled with pride he could not possibly hide.
"May I try it?"
"Handle it carefully. It's a piece I'm submitting to the lord for now, after all."
Elena dragged a training dummy out from the back of the smithy and covered it with an iron plate.
Facing the dummy, she planted her feet shoulder-width apart. Lowering her stance and shifting her weight onto her left foot, she swung the sword.
Shhk!
The training dummy split in two, iron plate and all.
"Huh."
Bordeaux exclaimed from behind her.
"Still incredible. Even with a good sword, cutting through an iron plate isn't easy."
"That's because the sword Uncle Bordeaux made is so good."
"Hmph. I knew it. No wonder you're the genius who captivated Eck. Your eye is as good as your master's."
Bordeaux laughed, looking satisfied.
Elena lowered the sword and stared for a long while at the iron plate she had cut.
It was a good sword.
She wanted it.
Uncle's sword had been a fine gift too, of course, but Elena had been starting to feel the limits of an ordinary sword.
She hadn't been able to sever the troll's limbs in a single stroke when she fought it, but with this sword, she could.
"Elena, do you like it?"
"Huh? Yes..."
"Judging by your expression, Eck was right after all."
"Pardon?"
For a moment, a sharp pang throbbed somewhere in her chest.