Chapter 203:
Family Registry
After leaving the guild lodge, I arrived at Druid’s house to find some merchants carrying boxes of stuff out the front door. Druid stood there and looked on.
“Hello,” I greeted him.
“Finished with your business at the lodge?”
“Yes. Oh, this lady named Alumi came to see the guild master.”
When I said the name, one of the merchants walking past me groaned audibly. He had an indescribable expression on his face. As I looked up at the groaner in confusion, Druid laughed.
“What’s going on?” I asked.
“Alumi handles the guild’s business negotiations, so all the merchants are terrified of her. They try to work things out on equal terms, but if they’re not careful, the deals always seem to favor Alumi. Still, I was surprised to hear such a foul reaction just from hearing her name.”
Druid looked pretty amused, but the merchant had a grimace on his face as he got back to work. That’s right, the guild master did say his assistant was in charge of negotiations.
“She was really angry with the guild master.”
“Ha ha ha! Well, she has warned him about that a lot.”
“Warned him?”
“Yeah, the guild’s gears weren’t running smoothly, and they’d made a lot of careless errors here and there. Alumi kept scolding him to check in with her sooner.”
“Oh, I see.”
“But the guild master said he couldn’t consult her anymore, what with the baby and all.”
Yeah, the guild master was really concerned about Alumi’s new baby, but she was more upset that he hadn’t kept her in the loop.
“But now that she’s back, everything should sort itself out. After all, she is quite a tyrant of a boss.”
A tyrant…that makes me shudder. “Oh, right! And she’s not letting the guild master go home until he’s finished all the work that’s piled up. She even got permission from his wife.”
“Yikes… Alumi, that was a ruthless move, getting his one source of comfort on your side.”
From the terror in the guild master’s voice, I could tell there was more than met the eye with Alumi. It sounded like she really was quite a woman.
“Oh, right. This is for you.” Druid pulled a green card out of his pants pocket. I didn’t recognize it, but it looked similar to my bank card.
“What’s this?”
“A card the merchant guild gives to registrants.”
Huh?
“I registered you with the merchant guild today and they approved you right away.”
“Oh! Thank you very much. I completely forgot I’d asked you to do that.”
“Well, you had a lot on your plate. And, I was thinking…if you’re okay with it, would you like to do a family registration?”
“A family registration?”
“Yeah, lots of families do business with the merchant guild, so you can register with them as a family. I looked into it and you can register even if you’re not blood-related. We’ve been using bank cards as proof of guarantor, but it would be a lot safer to use a guild card.”
It seemed a lot like how some adventure parties registered as families with the adventurer guild. I was surprised that we didn’t need to be blood relatives, though.
“You don’t need to register your skills when you register as a family. All you need is consent of the parties involved and a little blood.”
Blood?
“Um…why do they need blood, sir?”
“Huh? Didn’t you have to give a blood sample when you made your bank account?”
Did I? At the time, I was so worked up over the fact that I was getting a bank account that I didn’t pay attention. Though, come to think of it, I think I did press my finger against something.
“I think I did?”
“You mean you don’t remember?”
“I never even thought I could have a bank account, so I was really overwhelmed by the whole thing.”
“Ah, now I get it.”
At the time, I was just trying to keep my head on straight, but looking back now, my memories of those days were so hazy that I couldn’t really remember much. Though one thing I did remember very strongly was the disappointment I’d felt over not having my head on straight.
“I understand. It is pretty exciting making a bank account in your own name. The first time I used my account to transfer over my retaining fee, I remember feeling a rush.”
“You felt it, too, Mr. Druid?”
Druid smiled and nodded. Looking at the calm, mature man he was now, it was hard to imagine him like that. For that matter, I couldn’t even imagine him ever being young.
“Okay, we’re all done,” one of the workers called out to us as we stood and talked in the doorway. I guessed that meant they’d finished hauling away all the stuff.
“Thanks.”
“No, thank you. You sold us quite a lot of useful goods. It won’t be long before the adventurers come pushing and shoving to buy it all.”
Adventurers pushing and shoving? Is there something that valuable in there?
“Ha ha ha, yeah, I can definitely see that happening. Transfer the money to my account, okay?”
“Of course, sir. Well, bye.”
And the packed carriage took off.
“Um, Mr. Druid, why would the adventurers push and shove to buy your stuff?”
“We’re not sure how this happened—it could be because they went berserk—but we found out that gurbars have extremely pure magic stones inside of them.”
High-purity magic stones. That would definitely bring adventurers in droves if they heard about it.
“Not all the gurbars have those magic stones, but apparently you have a pretty good chance of finding one.”
“Well, that does sound impressive. I’d love to see how rare it is.”
“I saw one of the magic stones, but the highest level they reach is Level 2.”
Level 2? My perception has been a bit out of whack since Flame started spitting out SSS-level magic stones out of nowhere, but…that’s actually considered pretty powerful, isn’t it?
“I’m tired of standing. Let’s go inside and have a proper chat.”
“Okay.” Oh, right! I still haven’t given him an answer yet. “Um, Mr. Druid…the family registry…I’d like to do that.”
“Oh…are you sure?” Druid asked, looking a bit worried. I’d probably made him anxious by taking too long to answer.
“Yes. I’m happy to join the family…Dad.”
“Ha ha ha, now I have something to show off to the guild master.”
Huh? Show off…what? I looked at Druid, and the smile on his face was so soft and gentle. To my relief, I couldn’t find a trace of the worry that had previously been in his eyes.
“If you go see the guild master right now, you might also see Alumi.”
“I think…I won’t go right now. I’d feel bad getting in his way.”
Maybe it was because of everything he’d been through in life, but sometimes Druid looked incredibly insecure. I hoped I’d see that look on him less and less in the future.
“Is that the real reason why?”
We walked into the dining room, which now seemed incredibly spartan. Druid had already sold all his unneeded furniture. He sure worked fast.
“Ah, so you found me out. Yeah, well, Alumi is a bit of a drillmaster. If I went to the guild now, she’d definitely put me to work. I can’t count the number of times the guild master got me caught up in things.”
Druid sighed heavily. I guess he was right. If he showed up at the guild and Alumi had asked him to work, he wouldn’t be able to refuse—Druid is too kind.
“Oh, that’s right.” Druid pushed the button on a magic item that I’d never seen before.
“What’s that?”
“It’s a magic item that keeps noises from escaping an area.” It was a bit smaller than the similar items we’d used before. “It covers a small range, but it should be enough for just us two.”
Ah. That makes sense.
“The one drawback is that it only works inside a tent or a house.”
“Oh, really?”
“Yeah, because it doesn’t hide our mouths.”
“Our mouths?”
“Didn’t you know? The noise-canceling magic items that you use outside make it so people can’t read your lips.”
“Wow, people can actually read lips?”
“Yeah, if they have the lipreading skill.”
I didn’t know that was a thing. What with the existence of these magic items, was there any situation where the lipreading skill could actually be used?
“So, did they give you a fair price, Ivy?”
“It was so much money that it made me scared of my bank account.”
“Scared of your bank account? That’s a bit of an overreaction.”
“But I’m not overreacting. They gave me, um…three gold plates.”
“That checks out.”
He knew? I gave Druid a confused look, but he just smiled and gently patted my head.
“That’s the standard price for a potion that saved the life of an adventurer. Adventurers are like treasures to the guild. Depending on which one you saved, you could even get five gold plates.”
What?! Five gold plates… If that had been on my receipt, I surely would’ve fainted. Three gold plates was confounding enough already.
“Oh, and I just sold all my stuff at a pretty high price, so that should add even more to our travel fund.”
That reminds me, we haven’t actually discussed how we would divvy the fund up. Though I guess we could always check our accounts tomorrow.
“Um, do you think we should talk about how much to save for the travel fund?”
“That’s a good idea. I’d like to leave as soon as we get everything ready.”
“Me, too.”
Okay…let’s get everything sorted out so I won’t be a burden on Druid!
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