The Guild Master's Mercy

The regular meeting was starting, and while it was never exactly smooth sailing, today the party was a complete and utter disaster.

"Alright. We'll now begin the one hundred and twelfth regular meeting."

Jian said that, but anyone could tell the one hundred and twelfth was pure bullshit. Hell, Jian himself had probably just spat out a random number.

"You always spring this shit on us ten minutes before it starts and you still call it a regular meeting? And where the hell is Laverre again?"

Karena was leaning back in her chair, legs crossed, looking thoroughly fed up.

"She blew all her money again and looked like she was in a shit mood, so I didn't bother calling her. Figured it'd be better for all of us."

"Serves her right. I've never seen anyone actually make money gambling."

Karena clearly thought Jian's consideration had been a bit much. A very wise judgment, in my opinion.

"...Just how much did you bet on me and Henry, exactly?"

To explain what happened: Jian didn't win the arena tournament. To be precise, he got eliminated in the preliminaries. It wasn't because he lost a fight. It was because he and I—no, specifically Kiriel and Jian—had been caught brawling outside the ring. Both of us got disqualified.

The real problem was that Laverre had trusted Jian way too much and placed a pretty hefty sum on his victory. Naturally, that money was absorbed into the arena's operating funds.

Laverre had confessed all this while throwing a tantrum, then complained that she'd even bet on my first-round elimination. I had expected that part, so I wasn't particularly surprised. Honestly, it felt pretty satisfying.

"Anyway, let's say Laverre not showing up is whatever. But shouldn't this guy be sitting this one out?"

Karena's finger was pointed straight at me. There was no need to ask why. I was still mostly paralyzed, slumped on the sofa like a discarded rag. I probably looked less like a person and more like a pile of laundry someone ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠had forgotten to fold.

"I wanted to be here. Laverre said the paralysis would wear off on its own if I stayed still, so it's not serious."

For a moment, Karena's gaze met mine.

"...Fine. If it's too hard, just stay lying down. The two of us can handle the meeting."

Her tone had shifted strangely. For a second I wondered if I'd done something wrong. But since nothing came to mind, I decided to let it slide.

"Anyway. Even if Laverre was the only one who lost money, the real issue is that our party hasn't earned a single coin. It's already been days and we still have nothing coming in."

"Is it really that big a problem? Sure, no income isn't great, but we got a sword for free through connections. And we somehow scored this ridiculously expensive mansion without paying rent. At least so far, we've been living pretty cheap."

"You're not wrong, Karena, but that's not the issue."

Jian walked over, grabbed the calendar off the wall with one hand, and scratched his head with the other. He opened his mouth like he was about to say something, then made this awkward um sound before simply turning the calendar toward us.

"What? Is today some special day?"

Karena didn't seem to get it, but the moment I saw the calendar, I instinctively knew exactly what Jian was worried about. These kinds of gut feelings were rarely wrong.

"Henry. You know what this means, right?"

Jian's eyes locked onto me. Two thoughts hit me almost simultaneously. One was Of course I know. The other was Oh. Fuck. No way.

"Three days left until the first-half guild settlement."

"Exactly. This isn't the time to talk about initial investments or whatever. We've got an emergency on our hands. My interest is piling up too..."

Right then, a familiar woman's voice came from the side.

"Weren't we officially listed as a disbanded party on paper?"

Familiar? Maybe. It was definitely a voice I'd heard before, but it sounded so lifeless it felt strangely foreign. Since I couldn't turn my neck, I couldn't confirm who it was.

"What the hell? I thought you said you weren't coming?"

"If I stay too depressed, it'll bring bad luck, you know."

It was Laverre, as expected. She casually draped her legs over my paralyzed body and lay down on the sofa.

"...Officially, I registered it as you all leaving the party, leaving me as a solo member. That way, when we reform the party later, we can start from the same rank again."

"And? Are you saying we have to pay some settlement fee? If that's the case, we can just borrow the money from somewhere and call it a day."

Laverre sounded completely shameless. But she wasn't thinking like an innocent child—she was thinking like a completely thoughtless adult.

"If it were that simple, I would've already paid it myself. It's not about the money."

When I said that, Jian chimed in.

"Henry's right. Paying it doesn't make it go away. The system works so that a portion of the commission from completed requests gets added to the settlement fund."

I tried to think of alternatives in my head. There weren't any.

"But is there even a way to solve this? They gave us half a year to fill the settlement quota—for an upper-rank party, no less. How the hell are we supposed to fill it in three days?"

Laverre twisted her foot on my knee as she added her own unhelpful comment.

"Exactly. Even if we revived the Demon King and killed him again, I doubt it'd be enough for that amount."

As usual, it wasn't a constructive suggestion. At this point, I wasn't even surprised anymore.

"That bitch wouldn't bleed even if you stabbed her."

"Who's saying I should be stabbed? I'm just saying we can't fill it, that's all."

Then Jian laughed and spoke up.

"That's a good point."

The bickering between Karena and Laverre died down as if someone had flipped a switch.

"As everyone knows, filling the settlement from zero in the remaining time is impossible. Taking on a big request in our current state would be tough too, and unfortunately this is the off-season, so there aren't many requests available anyway."

If I could have nodded, I would have done so right then.

"But listen. How have a bunch of screw-ups like us managed to survive in this brutal guild market? Was it because we're skilled? Because we earn a lot? No. That comes much later. Before that, we always solved everything through connections, didn't we?"

The more unnecessary fluff Jian added to his speech, the more a sense of foreboding rose in my chest.

"Stop beating around the bush and get to the point."

Everyone seemed to feel the same, because Karena cut him off perfectly. I quickly voiced my agreement.

"Hear, hear."

"Right. If you actually had a plan, you should've just said it from the start, shouldn't you?"

Jian kept smiling as he continued.

"The regular meeting was originally meant to buy us some time. Well. Anyway. The point is, we've run out of time to solve this with our own abilities. So we're going to borrow the power of our connections."

"Connections? Whose?"

"Tomorrow morning, we'll go see the Guild Master and..."

That was all he needed to say before a wave of intense groans erupted.

"Ugh, no! That guy is always trying to drag us into the thieves' guild, that fucking bald bastard keeps pulling that shit..."

"I can't either! Every time he sees me he asks about every little thing like he knows I skimmed some of the support funds! Shouldn't we look for another way? Yeah. How about I just spend some money behind the scenes?"

Of course, I felt the same.

"Honestly, I'm not thrilled about it either."

"Why not?"

"You know what the Guild Master's personality is like."

Jian rubbed his forehead and sighed.

"I get why you hate it. I really do... but we don't have any other options. The only legal route is to go to the Guild Master and get approval for non-payment."

"Then what about an illegal route?"

When Laverre said that, Jian covered his eyes completely.

"Ha... I told you to stay home because I knew you'd say something like that."

Then Karena spoke up.

"...What if that bald Guild Master doesn't approve it?"

"Even if he does approve it, there'll be conditions. He'll probably make us do several requests for free. Or dump all the annoying busywork in the guild onto us..."

It might have been a comment born from pure dislike, but at least her question was sharp. Still, I suspected everyone already had a rough idea where this conversation was headed.

"So we need to prepare thoroughly before ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠we go."

"Oh for fuck's sake."

"We're really doing that pathetic shit again?"

"What are you talking about?"

In the middle of all this, Laverre—who had joined the conversation last—still had no clue what we were planning. And so the next day, for the first time in a long while, we headed straight to the guild headquarters. A place we hadn't even visited much during our active days.

I had secretly hoped the paralysis wouldn't wear off by the next day. Unfortunately, it had mostly recovered.

"Ha. This. Ha. No way. Ah. Fuck. Ah."

As expected, Karena was the one resisting the hardest.

"It'll be fine. It'll work out."

"It had better work out. We're about to sell half our pride for this."

Jian told the counter staff that we wanted to see the Guild Master. The employee asked for our names, and when Jian said his, the man jumped in surprise and asked us to wait a moment. We sat in the reception room and waited for the Guild Master.

"Jian, let me ask one last time... are we really doing this? I mean. Yeah. We all agreed, and we've already eaten our pride, but... we're really doing this? In the reception room?"

"Henry. Let's remember our beginnings. Back in the day, whenever we saw the Guild Master we'd run over, grab the hem of his pants, and cry, remember?"

"That was back then... Ha. Fine."

To summarize our plan in one phrase: [Sympathy Inducement Operation].

It involved mixing truth and lies skillfully to earn the Guild Master's sympathy. On top of that, we each added our own tragic backstories to make ourselves look even more pitiful.

After an hour of discussion, the settings assigned to each of us were as follows.

And just like that, I had become a man whose fiancée was taken from him.

Karena's situation was slightly better than mine. Not that it could get much worse than this, but still.

And now we were sitting in the waiting room, repeating all of this in our heads over and over.