TBAGM Vol. 2 Chapter 3 Part 5

Meanwhile, I headed to the Adventurers’ Association with Elna and Nick in tow.

The moment we stepped inside, I spotted Orgus loitering near the reception counter.

“Orgus, I keep telling you there’s no need to wait for me.”

The chairman of the Adventurers’ Association personally standing around to meet someone was bound to draw attention. Naturally, every adventurer in the hall had their eyes on us.

Whenever I let him know I was coming to the guild, Orgus would always plant himself somewhere obvious like this and wait.

I appreciated the thought… but all those stares honestly hurt. No—really hurt.

“No, no, this much is nothing at all. Besides, it helps boost your name recognition, Mr. Lloyd.”

Orgus gave me a faintly mischievous smile.

Right. What he really wanted was for me to hurry up and raise my public profile to a level that wouldn’t embarrass him.

If I ever did become a household name, maybe these painful stares would die down a little. But that was still a long way off.

“Anyway, you’re here about that matter we discussed, right?”

“Yeah. I brought the two of them with me.”

“Understood. I’ll show you the way.”

Orgus led us down the corridor and stopped in front of one of the rooms.

“Here we are. I picked out a few people who should actually be useful.”

“You’ve really helped me out. I don’t know how I could ever thank you enough.”

“Hearing that is more than enough. Well then, I’ll get back to work.”

After I thanked him, Orgus headed straight back toward his office without stepping into the room.

As chairman, he had to be buried in work. Even so, he still took the time to personally handle my requests. I could only be grateful.

“Are you two ready?”

“Nobody’s told us anything yet, though.”

“What are we doing?”

I still hadn’t explained what we were about to do, just told them to come with me.

“It’ll be faster if you see it for yourselves.”

Ignoring their questions, I opened the door.

“““Good afternoon!”””

The moment the door swung open, six men and women came into view.

They bowed from the waist as one, heads lowered in perfect unison.

They must have been waiting for us. Lined up right by the entrance, their posture and timing were almost unnervingly precise.

“There’s no need to be that formal. Raise your heads.”

“““Y-Yes, sir…?”””

When I said that, their reply slipped out a touch weak, but their faces lit up as they straightened.

I immediately ran my 【Appraisal】 over the six of them from left to right.

(Oh… this is pretty impressive.)

As expected of Orgus: he had gathered people who covered the parts Nick and Elna were lacking—and who also had the kind of talents that would help draw out their strengths.

“Nick. Elna. I want the two of you to form a guild with these people.”

““Huh…?””

At my abrupt declaration, both of them let out a strangled sound.

Even Elna, who usually never batted an eye at anything, looked completely blindsided.

Nick pointed at one of the young men among the six and blurted out:

“W-Wait a sec! I’m pretty sure I’ve seen that guy somewhere before…”

“Ah, my name is Kiria! I’m honored that Mr. Nick actually recognizes me!”

“Mr. Lloyd! That’s Kiria, the guy who placed first in the rookie blacksmith rankings!”

Nick’s voice rose in excitement when he saw Kiria.

The Rookie Blacksmith Ranking was exactly what it sounded like: a list of “up-and-coming” smiths, restricted to newcomers, ranked by popularity and reputation.

It ran every issue in a weekly magazine and had become a fan-favorite feature.

“Rookie” meant within two years of becoming a blacksmith, so Nick, who had been smithing for only six months, technically qualified.

But Nick was an outlier who had pulled off the insane feat of jumping from D-rank to B-rank in one go.

At this rate, he would monopolize first place for the remaining year and a half without contest, so the editors quietly scrubbed him from the list before he ever reached the top.

The day he found that out and he shed bitter tears… but that was a story for another time.

“W-What is Kiria doing in a place like this?”

“Because word got around that I’d get to work under you, Mr. Nick! The genius who jumped from D-rank to B-rank! The ‘God of Metal Shaping’ himself! Getting to work for you is like a dream come true!”

“Eh? I’m a god now?”

Nick, overwhelmed by Kiria’s enthusiasm, just stared at him, mouth half open.

Then one of the women raised her hand and spoke up in a loud, clear voice.

“I’m thrilled I get to work under Ms. Elna too!”

“M-Me?”

“Yes! The prodigy who jumped from E-rank to B-rank just like Mr. Nick! The come-from-behind underdog, a Dark Elf striving for the summit despite belonging to a disadvantaged race! I can’t believe I get to be part of that story, I was so excited I didn’t sleep a wink last night!”

“Ah… yeah…”

Elna, just like Nick, found herself overwhelmed. Her cheeks reddened as she fell silent.

Hearing them praise the two of them like that made me feel weirdly proud as well.

“Everyone here wants to work under you two.”

Forcing my own smile back under control, I addressed Nick and Elna.

The six all nodded vigorously in agreement.

While the two of them were still struggling to process the situation, I bowed my head.

“I want you two to become the leaders of the guild that will support us from behind the scenes.”

“M-Mr. Lloyd! Please raise your head!”

“Yeah! Don’t bow to us!”

They panicked when they saw me bow so suddenly.

“Of course we’re gonna work our butts off to be useful to you, Mr. Lloyd!”

“Mm! I’ll be useful to Lord Lloyd!”

They smiled wryly, but their voices were full of spirit.

At first, they would probably fumble with the whole “guildmaster” thing and make their share of mistakes.

Honestly, there were still plenty of parts of the role I hadn’t gotten used to myself.

But I had chosen these two. I believed they’d push through every wall in their way and reach the future I hoped for.

“That really helps. Everyone, I’m counting on you to support these two.”

“““Uh…?”””

“Huh?”

From the way things were going, I had half expected the six new craftsmen to reply with a brisk “Yes, sir!” full of motivation.

Instead, they all tilted their heads in puzzlement. For some reason, whenever I spoke, their responses were oddly subdued.

One of the craftsmen slated to work under Nick raised his hand.

“What’s wrong?”

“Why are you acting so high and mighty, exactly?”

“…Huh?”

Nick and Elna’s eyebrows twitched in unison.

Oblivious to their reaction, the young man kept going.

“I mean, you’re bossing Mr. Nick and Ms. Elna around like that, but sure, maybe you’re their guildmaster—still, you’re not a combat-class, right? And you’re not a craftsman either? It just kinda feels like power harassment, you know?”

“Haha… is that how it came across?”

I let out a dry chuckle at the familiar sort of pushback.

In my experience, people with a craftsman’s temperament tended to be the type who spoke their minds bluntly.

A lot of blacksmiths and alchemists also believed that as long as their skills were sharp enough, they could live however they pleased, so many of them chose to stay taciturn and “let their work speak for them.”

But that way of thinking was a huge mistake.

Negotiation, charisma, knowledge, and a dozen other “non-technical” skills created a massive gap between craftsmen who had them and those who didn’t.

The rare few who could rise to the top on skill alone were the ones who became legendary smiths.

(Well… I can teach them that later.)

There was no need to lecture him now. That was something even Nick and Elna could explain in time.

I decided to wrap things up and turned to speak to the two of them.

But the Nick and Elna I was used to were nowhere behind me.

“Hey, you. Take that back. Then bow your head to Mr. Lloyd.”

“Or I’ll grind you into mince, okay?”

Their faces looked like demons.

“““Huh?”””

The new craftsmen clearly hadn’t expected them to get angry. They froze, mouths hanging open.

I was just as stunned and turned to Elna, my lips flapping soundlessly at first.

“E-Elna? Did you just say you’d grind him into mince?”

I could have sworn I heard the words “grind you into mince” from the lips of that pure, innocent little angel, but surely I had misheard. Yes, I must have misheard. There was no way she actually said that.

She crushed that desperate hope without mercy.

“Yup. I’ll grind him into mince!”

“““Uh… what?”””

I could only imagine what was going through their heads after being told they’d be turned into mince by the very people they idolized.

The shining expressions they’d worn at the idea of working under Nick and Elna vanished in an instant, replaced by a stunned emptiness that had already blown past sadness.

“You’re the only one who needs to apologize. Hurry up and bow.”

“Yeah. Bow.”

At their merciless prompting, the man broke out in a cold sweat and bowed to me.

“I-I’m sorry.”

“J-Just be more careful from now on. It’s not like our achievements are all that visible yet, either.”

I offered a sympathetic smile to the now thoroughly beaten-down craftsman.

At first, Nick and Elna had been intimidated by the idea of those famous craftsmen working under them.

Now, though, they were already starting to radiate a proper “boss” aura.

“Mr. Lloyd, we’ll make sure to straighten these guys out. So please, go help Ms. Mint.”

“Mm. I’ll teach them how amazing Lord Lloyd is.”

They puffed out their chests as if to reassure me.

At this point, it almost felt like the start of some strange religion, which was… a little worrying in its own way.

“Got it. The two of you probably have a lot of paperwork and procedures to handle, but I’ll take care of those later. If anything urgent comes up, ask Orgus.”

““Yes, sir!””

After confirming their firm nods, I left the room.

They were all doing everything they could to live up to my expectations.

From here on, it was my turn to carry my share of the load.

†

“Then I’ll bring these guys back to the guild.”

“Yeah. If we have any questions, we’ll come ask you.”

Right after Lloyd left, Nick and Elna also exited the room.

The two of them headed for their respective workshops.

“This is going to be your workplace starting today.”

“““Whoa…!”””

The three blacksmiths who had followed Nick let out impressed voices at the sight of their workshop.

Among the blacksmith group, two were men and one was a woman.

Of the two men, one was the guy who had just misspoken to Lloyd earlier, and the other was Kiria.

“Let’s start with introductions. I’m Nick. I’ll be serving as the guildmaster for this blacksmiths’ guild, at least on paper. I’m younger than everyone here and my experience is shallow, so if I fumble anything, I’d appreciate you pointing it out.”

As he introduced himself, Nick glanced over the documents Orgus had handed him before they left the Adventurers’ Guild.

Those papers were the stat sheets for all six of them that Lloyd had read with 【Insight】. On the way out, Lloyd had apparently jotted them down and passed them to Orgus.

“M-My name is Kiria. I applied to this guild because I want to become a blacksmith like you, Mr. Nick. My specialty field is metal shaping.”

The boy named Kiria spoke, voice a little tense but steady enough.

If one omitted his raw ability scores from the appraisal results and extracted only the items directly related to blacksmithing, his sheet looked like this:

.

[Name]	Kiria (17)
[Skill]	Special Coating E/B
[Attributes]	Concentration D/A  Armor Crafting E/A  Metal Shaping C/C

.

Among them, Kiria was the youngest craftsman.

“Attribute” was the category that expressed a person’s inherent qualities, but for craftsmen, it also displayed techniques that did not quite reach the level of a formal Skill.

Skills, aside from a few extreme exceptions acquired through monstrous effort, generally indicated innate, God-given talent.

At the moment, Kiria excelled at metal shaping, but reading this appraisal made it clear that there was little room left for that to grow; his real potential lay overwhelmingly in armor crafting.

On top of that, he possessed a talent—a Skill—for performing a kind of special coating that ordinary people could never hope to achieve. If he mastered it, it would become a unique power belonging to him alone.

Nick, however, could only vaguely grasp what the appraisal was saying. To someone not used to looking at such readouts, it amounted to nothing but a string of meaningless text.

(Well, I’m no teacher anyway. I’ll just leave the whole “career path” thing to Mr. Lloyd.)

Nick had a knack for management, but not for instruction. He knew that about himself better than anyone.

“I’m Georg. Just like Kiria, I came here because I look up to you. My specialty field is armor crafting.”

.

[Name]	Georg (25)
[Skill]	Special Polishing E/B
[Attributes]	Endurance D/A Armor Crafting D/C  Weapon Crafting E/A

.

“I’m Rose. I don’t have any particular specialty.”

.

[Name]	Rose (21)
[Skill]	Negotiation Manipulation E/A
[Attributes]	Identification D/B  Dexterity D/B  External Finish E/B

.

Nick had no way of knowing it at the time, but Orgus had selected the people placed under him specifically to match Nick’s own stat profile.

Kiria was there to establish an armor production line.

Georg was there to establish a weapons production line.

Rose was there to establish product sales routes.

Just as Nick would become a supporting pillar for Lloyd, the three of them would become pillars supporting Nick’s guild.

It was an arrangement born of Orgus’s foresight, made after seeing that Nick’s blacksmiths’ guild would inevitably expand further in the future.

“Alright, now that introductions are done, I’ll give you a quick rundown of how things are going to work from here.”

Nick closed the file and fixed his gaze on the three of them.

“This guild is the blacksmiths’ guild under Veiled Moonrise, Mr. Lloyd’s guild. That means any request from Mr. Lloyd is something we absolutely have to accept.”

“E-Excuse me, may I ask one thing?”

Georg nervously raised his hand in response to Nick’s words.

“What is it?”

“Why do you respect Mr. Lloyd that much? You’ve only joined Veiled Moonrise recently, haven’t you, Mr. Nick?”

Compared to Nero and Ellis, Nick was indeed a newcomer.

But the reason he respected Lloyd this deeply was simple: Lloyd had understood him.

Lloyd didn’t just make people stronger. Taking into account the unfair circumstances they were stuck in, he led them to the next stage; the place they themselves wanted to reach.

Nick was one of those people.

Despite all the tantrums he had thrown and all the hassle he had caused, Lloyd still needed him like this. That fact made him happier than anything.

“You’ll figure it out yourselves eventually, but since you asked, we might as well start now. Let me tell you the complete anthology of how amazing Mr. Lloyd is.”

Seeing the look on Nick’s face, Rose shot Georg a glare that all but said, What landmine did you just step on?

Completely unaware of this, Nick happily launched into a monologue about Lloyd.

“Twinwing Smiths”—the blacksmiths’ guild whose name would someday be known throughout the world—was born at that very moment.

†