A Family-Like Guild (1)
The man named Isaac Silvertehr had not always been trash from the beginning. At least, that was what Zeek wanted to believe. Otherwise, there was no way he would have taken care of two orphans like them. In this city of Gideon, where everything could be solved with gold, taking in orphans and raising them without any compensation was no easy choice. Yet he had done exactly that.
If Isaac had not helped them back then, the siblings would probably have died. For that, she was grateful. That was why Zeek had stayed by his side until the end, even as everyone else left. She believed it was the way to repay that debt.
“You are hereby exiled.”
She never dreamed she would be repaid like this.
<Welcome to the Guild of the Exiled!>
According to the original story’s description, Isaac had been a rather decent master in the early days of founding the guild. He was a bit stingy, but not to the point where people hated him. The staff even teased him about it, which showed how lenient he had been.
However, as the guild began to grow in earnest, Isaac slowly revealed his true colors. Those who opposed his will were mostly expelled from the guild. Even if they weren’t expelled, he used his underlings to harass them relentlessly until they left on their own.
The protagonist Zeek had described Isaac’s behavior like this: Was that his true nature? Or had power corrupted him and changed him? Still, there was one ray of hope.
‘At least it means he was an ideal master in the beginning.’
In the early days, Isaac had constantly talked about family. But the protagonist later recalled that despite all the talk, he had rarely actually treated anyone like family.
The one advantage the current Isaac had was that he had possessed the body right at the moment the guild was founded. Even though his words were empty for now, everyone still believed him. In other words, the future would change depending on how the guild master Isaac behaved from this point on.
And at this critically important moment, Isaac was lost in thought.
‘First, I need to decide on my concept.’
Yes. At such a pivotal time, instead of preparing for the future or training, Isaac was thinking about his concept first. But to him, it was an extremely important issue.
He had already set his core values. Since the original Isaac had constantly spoken about family, it would be best to truly treat the guild members like family. The problem was his weapon. A concept was just as important as one’s values. It might seem like it could go either way, but a character’s image could change drastically depending on their weapon.
After much deliberation, he made his decision.
‘I admired the way of the draw-sword technique!’
The setting of a talentless swordsman who, through sheer effort alone, reaches the ultimate realm with but a single strike. Ah, that was the true romance. How could any man resist that? He absolutely couldn’t!!
But there was a more immediate problem. He had to head to work as the guild master of the Iron Shield.
The problem was that Isaac knew absolutely nothing about being a master. Of course he had handled various tasks while working at a company, but there was no guarantee that would translate to a fantasy world. Still, Isaac brushed it off without much concern.
‘It’ll work out somehow.’
Worrying alone wouldn’t change anything anyway. In that case, it was far better to act with confidence. That way, no one would suspect him. That was his thinking.
Fortunately, Isaac had been a devoted reader of this novel. Naturally, he had collected all the merchandise and had thoroughly read the official setting book that the author had published, including the maps. As expected, when he followed his memories and walked forward, the Iron Shield guild building came into view.
However, since it was still the early days, the majestic appearance from the illustrations was nowhere to be seen.
‘In the illustration, it looked almost like a castle.’
Now it was just a shabby, run-down two-story building. But Isaac didn’t mind. From now on, he planned to build the guild entirely in his own way.
“The master has arrived.”
“So you finally decided to show up for work.”
“……”
He had opened the door boldly to hide his nervousness. The people who had been chatting in the lobby all turned to him and spoke up. There were only five of them in total.
“Is everyone here?”
“You can see that for yourself.”
“You made such a big deal about how important today was and told us not to be late. So what are you doing showing up late yourself?”
Unlike the middle-aged man who spoke casually, the woman with short blonde hair pointedly criticized him without hesitation. Both of them were people he remembered. Or rather, from the illustrations.
‘The early members of the Iron Shield. I never thought I’d see them in person.’
The five heroes who had founded the Iron Shield guild together with Isaac. Although they had all retired by the time of the original story, each one was a formidable powerhouse not to be underestimated. People even said the reason Isaac had succeeded was because he had made good friends.
But in the end, they had all been expelled from the guild by Isaac. Some had even been so relentlessly tormented after their expulsion that they took their own lives. There was no need to elaborate on how vicious and pathetic the original Isaac had been.
“Important matter… Are you talking about the request?”
“That’s right! Subjugating the goblins that appeared in Veltas Village!”
“You emphasized yourself that time was of the essence, Master.”
As expected of a husband, the middle-aged man chimed in to support the blonde woman’s words. Isaac nodded.
The goblin subjugation of Veltas Village. There was no way he wouldn’t know about this.
‘Veltas is the protagonist Zeek’s hometown. It was destroyed by a goblin raid, but Zeek miraculously survived.’
Indeed. Veltas was Zeek’s hometown, and this was where the story began with Isaac rescuing the Zeek siblings. If not for Isaac, Zeek would have died.
“How are the preparations?”
“All done. We can leave anytime.”
“The only problem was our lazy master being late.”
“I apologize for that. I offer my sincere apology once again.”
“W-what? Don’t suddenly apologize so seriously.”
The blonde woman, Sophia, looked flustered and turned her head away. Normally the master would have slyly brushed it off, but today he was strangely serious. What was going on? Had something happened?
“If preparations are complete, there’s no reason to dawdle. We depart immediately.”
“Didn’t you say we were leaving in two days?”
“Yeah, you said you had to meet someone.”
“Is there a problem with everyone’s schedule?”
“Not really, but…”
“Then we depart immediately.”
Quite ironically, around this time in the original story, Isaac had been building connections with the upper guilds. Because of that, their departure had been delayed by two days, and Veltas Village ended up suffering the goblin raid. Of course, one couldn’t blame Isaac for that. The goblins were the ones at fault.
Still, if they could hurry and save more people, there was no reason to hesitate, was there? Just in case, he asked the guild members for their understanding. Fortunately, no one objected. In fact, they all insisted they should go as quickly as possible.
Isaac nodded.
“Right. Let’s go as fast as we can.”
“Now you’re finally making some sense.”
“I overlooked the weight of time. I apologize.”
“No, you don’t have to apologize so much…”
The middle-aged man with the massive build, Hans, gave an awkward smile. Hans had once had his own hometown ravaged by goblins. That was why he had insisted they hurry. In the original story, Isaac had ignored that opinion. He had made all sorts of excuses, but in the end it had been because of his connections with the upper guilds.
But things were different now. Connections? He didn’t need any of that.
‘Once you become the strongest, connections become unnecessary.’
Isaac had already decided on all his concepts in his head. One of them was to become the strongest in Gideon. As a man, wasn’t it natural to dream of the romance of being the strongest at least once?
But before that, his top priority was to create a family-like guild. Of course, in the original story he had talked about a family-like guild, but in reality it had been far from one. It had been closer to a private army tailored to Isaac’s own tastes. Anyone who displeased him had been kicked out of the guild. And that had included the protagonist.
‘Of course, I have no intention of doing that.’
The protagonist was the protagonist, after all. Knowing that Zeek would gather the exiled and instantly turn the guild into the strongest in Gideon, Isaac had no intention of discarding such a talented individual. On the contrary, he planned to save all the talented people who had been tragically sacrificed in the original story and recruit them into this guild.
Creating the strongest guild. That was Isaac’s ultimate goal. And of course, he had no intention of yielding the seat of the strongest to anyone.