The guild of all guilds

Classes were relatively simple. I only had four but there was an extra one; the 'how to read' class. Apparently, most of the students didn't know how to read; they were kids so not surprising. This was why they were teaching us how to read first. And this was also why the teachers were reading the books to the students, instead of going in depth about the topics. Since I could already read (and already read the material), I barely learned anything. Attendance wasn't mandatory so I didn't need to come here again either. At least for a week. Every week, they had mandatory attendance. 

But if I don't attend, I won't get to see her. Besides, I needed a lot of connections. For my plans to succeed I needed both a leading figure to take my place and a crowd of devout followers. If I could recruit Nisa, I could use her already large following. But that wasn't enough. I needed more, and to get them, I had to become somewhat popular myself. But how? 

If I followed Shia's example, I could easily become famous albeit not in a good way. Come to think of it, I might have already been somewhat infamous. Maybe I could use Gerar and, no, that dude was too unpredictable. He might not have meant me harm, but he was definitely a loose cannon. It was best to distance myself from him. Even if he had malicious intent, for now, I planned on just keeping an eye on things. 

Guess I'll attend classes. 

It wasn't like I had anything better to do anyway. I thought life would be hectic here. I thought things would go south or maybe some bullies would come pick on me. But in the end, Den had made sure nothing of that sort happened. He made me the first son of a Viscount and gave me social status. He even gave me money- 

Wait money. 

Just the money from the library wasn't going to be enough. If I finished the library affairs before classes and the classes before noon, I could dedicate the entire afternoon to mini jobs at the local guild. I heard they always had small jobs like finding cats and dogs, helping old people, and whatnot. Of course, getting kidnapped was a real possibility, especially considering how small I was. But as long as I didn't go into random alleyways it wasn't going to be that big of an issue. No, letting your guard down just because it's somewhat safe on the main street, isn't a good idea either. Hmm… then maybe I could convince another kid to go with me. Maybe- 

"Mike what do you usually do in the afternoon." 

Classes were mostly over. Half of the class had left. The other half were chatting for no apparent reason. 

"Play with the others?" 

"Oh yeah." How the hell did I forget that? And I'm one of the kids he plays with too! 

"Why? You plan on doing something interesting?" 

"Thought I'd pick up some jobs at the guild. You know, gotta earn from an early age." 

"You're the first son of a viscount. I'm sure you'll have enough money when you take over your father's position." 

I leaned closer. "I have no intention of doing that," I winked. 

He blinked a couple of times, and then smiled in a rather weird way. Wait, I hadn't seen that dude smile like that before. Why the fuck is your smile so creepy? "I see, I see. I was planning something similar. Can't stand that bearded asshole." 

"Ah… who?" 

"My old man." 

Wow. 

"Sucks. Mine's at least…" Now that I thought about it, the head of the Barack family was pretty… weird too. And a womanizer no less. "Never mind." 

Mike burst into laughter. "So you wanted to ask me out right?" 

Why're you reacting like a girl all of a sudden? 

"It's not safe out there. Thought we'd be fine if we were together. I don't have any combat training at all." 

"I see, I see. Learned spearmanship from that beardface. I'd be happy to teach you." 

I had no intention of learning that though. Actually, I didn't like fighting at all. Why the hell was I going to risk my life fighting monsters when I could laze around in my room doing nothing? 

No, that won't do. You have to get stronger to survive, remember? Sigh. Fuck. "Okay, thanks a ton." 

"You're welcome a ton~!" 

*** 

Mike agreed to teach me in the morning just after our running sessions. We also agreed to go out today to the guild this afternoon. This city was big but it had four guilds. One was the main building while the others were like subbranches spread throughout the city. 

I had a lot of time to kill so I went to the library, fixed up some books and read a few about adventuring. 

Apparently, the art of adventuring and the guild didn't exist even a hundred years ago. Back then only mercenaries were a thing. You paid them money and they completed jobs for you. But some would just run away with the money. So that's when a particular man, Robert Browny came up with the idea of a middleman, things changed. You gave money to the middleman, and the middleman made sure your job was completed. In exchange they were going to charge some administrative fees and ensure quality of work. On the flip side, the middleman would also make sure that the client didn't back out on a deal; Robert was a Margrave at the time, so he had enough authority and money to back up things. Since scams were highly unlikely with the middleman involved, jobs became a surplus and a new career emerged: adventuring. No to one's surprise this middleman was named The Guild. One by one, more guilds emerged; Commerce guild (basically the bank), Merchant's Guild, Magician's guild and so on. To distinguish themselves, 'The Guild' took on another name. 

Our destination for today? The Guild of all guilds: The Adventurer's Guild.