A Rather Suspicious Employee (1)
Our Lucas Guild headquarters building was pretty rundown. Leana's father, Lucas, the founding guild master, hadn't built it himself—he'd bought it. According to the architectural records Leana had, it was a solid thirty years old this year. Still, they'd built it sturdy back then, so the framework was holding up fine. The outer plaster had peeled off completely, though, and cracks ran through the lime exterior, making it hard to tell from the street if it was a guild hall or an abandoned wreck.
The sign was still there, at least, but it hadn't been touched up since Mr. Lucas passed, so the letters were all faded. Inside, it was basement level one and two stories above ground. The basement was a document storage room for guild paperwork and the loot from commissions. I'd rummaged through it, and anything of value had already been sold off—only worthless junk remained piled up. Most of the records were small-time requests from folks in Schlessi and nearby duchy towns. Nothing like the big imperial guilds that dealt directly with the capital.
The first floor was the main guild office space. A large living room with a fireplace served as the hub, with the guild master's office, consultation room, and kitchen branching off. There was a small reception desk by the entrance for mail and greeting clients. The living room used to be where guild members waited, but now it just had a single ratty sofa. Before I arrived, Leana had been using the dining table as her bed.
The guild master's office was where I stayed, and the consultation room doubled as our dining area now—the only spot with a table big enough for three or more to eat. It had big windows for good lighting, but it felt way too empty for client meetings. Sure, we weren't running a plastic surgery clinic or a dermatology office that needed to dazzle, but sprucing it up a bit couldn't hurt.
The kitchen was your standard setup—fireplace, stove, countertops. Step out the back door, and you hit an open lot behind the building. Off to one side was a simple wooden bathroom, and next to that, a small shed. It used to store weapons or something, but now it was full of useless crap coated in cobwebs and dust, just like the basement. The rest of the lot served as a training ground. There was a wooden dummy in the corner—probably for practice swings.
The second floor had eight rooms for executives, but they were so cramped you could barely fit a bed. Funny thing was, the guild had never been big enough to fill them—even in its heyday, they'd used less than half.
Overall, the guild had everything it needed, and the layout wasn't bad. For an adventurer's guild, anyway. Adventurer guilds were loose outfits—people just registered and wandered off on their own, so you didn't need many live-in staff. But I wanted a large-scale guild that could field a proper mercenary company. Having your own troops made dealing with official channels a breeze.
Say the Grand Capital needed someone for a job on short notice—which would they pick? A guild with four random adventurers or one with a hundred well-trained mercenaries? Obvious choice. And those government contracts paid huge, with minimal risk of getting stiffed. In the empire, where border skirmishes were constant, you could find big guilds raking it in that way—deployed where imperial troops couldn't go, fighting proxy wars and scooping up the cash.
I planned to take it further: a dedicated demon hunter special forces unit. Round up scattered demon hunters into a squad, and after the next archdemon revival, we'd clean up. But that meant money upfront, and money meant a steady stream of commissions. To get commissions, people had to know about us. Time to advertise, drum up clients, scout for subsidies, and make the building look respectable.
"Celestine!"
No answer.
"Why, Office Manager?"
Leana came in from the guild master's office, wiping her hands after cleaning the fireplace.
"Where's Celestine?"
"She went to dump the trash. What do you need?"
"Gonna send out some guild promo stuff."
"Guild promo?"
Leana brushed back her hair and tilted her head.
"How're we promoting?"
"Dunno. Have her wear a mascot costume and hand out flyers?"
Leana burst out laughing at my joke.
"Celestine's pretty, so better to show her face. How about posters instead?"
"Posters work. But we gotta write 'em all by hand?"
"Nah, there's a print shop in town. We commission 'em, then just stick 'em up ourselves."
"Nice."
I grabbed a pen and sketched a sample on scrap paper right there. Lucas Guild: Solved the Rezobuar Reservoir water level drop and Milking Dawn Ranch livestock thefts. Professional demon hunters on standby. Special discount on first commissions for new clients. And so on.
"Something like this?"
"Looks good. I'll head out now."
"Let's go together. Gotta pick up some stuff too."
I threw on my cloak and stepped out of the office—just as Celestine opened the door.
"Where you two headed?"
"Into town. Wanna come?"
"Uh, um..."
Celestine hesitated, then nodded.
"Sure."
Since joining, Celestine had stayed meek and a bit downcast. She'd insisted her personality wasn't great, but I hadn't seen it yet. Maybe getting dragged into one crisis after another had changed her. Dropping from saintess to regular employee in a strange place couldn't be easy. Strictly speaking, she was still a death row convict from her order, and she'd watched all her fellow priests die right in front of her.
Her casual clothes suited her perfectly, too. No one would buy that she'd been a saintess just days ago. The halo over her head was barely visible in the sunlight anyway.
"Let's go. We'll grab lunch out while we're at it."
"Yay!"
Leana cheered.
First stop was the print shop Leana mentioned. I showed them my sample, and the clerk tweaked it into a slick proof on the spot.
"Perfect. This, uh, hundred sheets?"
"Gotta be three hundred, Office Manager. Schlessi's a big city."
We ordered three hundred as Leana suggested and paid up. Ready tomorrow.
Next, Schlessi's central market—for a round table for the first-floor living room, decor for the consultation room, and bedding for Celestine.
"This work?"
"Perfect. For meetings or dinners."
We ordered a huge round table that could seat ten.
"Celestine! Check this out. So pretty."
Leana held up a small vase, and Celestine nodded.
"Really pretty. But where would we put it?"
"On the consultation room table? It's too drab right now."
"Oh, the consultation room."
Celestine glanced around and picked something up.
"For consultations, wouldn't this be better?"
It was a shiny gold, elongated oval platter.
What the hell is that?
"Put pens, inkwell, writing stuff on it. And..."
Now she grabbed a fancy leather rectangle with intricate engravings. Open at the bottom, like a cover, but with a long vertical slit where a lid should be.
"What's that?"
"Tissue box cover for the consultation room. Just leaving tissues out looks tacky."
"Oh, right?"
They make those?
"Oh, and how about this?"
A heavy wooden frame, smoothly polished.
"Frame our business license or something and hang it on the wall?"
"Good idea... haha."
"And we should change the consultation room curtains. Saw some food stain on them yesterday."
She picked out silk curtains that screamed expensive—even to my untrained eye. Leana checked prices on everything Celestine touched, subtly shaking her head at me behind her back.
I agreed. Celestine, oblivious to our exchanged glances, kept pointing out pricey stuff. Her sense of money was on a whole different level from ours.
In the end, none of her picks made the cut.
"But get the blanket you want."
"Thank you."
She reached for a top-tier goose down comforter, paused, then set it down and chose a cheaper one.
"This should be fine... right?"
I smiled at her puppy-dog eyes.
She's got good instincts. And she's cute.
The next day, we picked up the three hundred posters from the print shop. We split them a hundred each and headed out to plaster the city.
"See you later, everyone!"
Leana waved energetically and took off.
"Celestine. You got this, right?"
"Of course. Leave it to me."
She grabbed her stack and went the other way. I was a little worried, but she can handle sticking paper on walls, right?
I watched her go, then turned and got to work.
A few hours later, back at the guild, Leana and I waited for Celestine.
"Weird. Why hasn't she come back?"
"Yeah. Something happen? Should we go look?"
We ended up heading out to the area she'd been assigned.
"Office Manager. What's she doing over there?"
Leana pointed ahead. Celestine was leaning against a wall, munching on something.