TBAGM Vol. 3 Chapter 1 Part 3

The result of the Guild Showdown between Greenpeak and Azure Sea Whitecaps spread across the entire country in no time.

Greenpeak, ranked 7th among the guilds, had shot all the way up to 3rd place. Their guild possessed techniques beyond human understanding, such as a Mana Shooter, an Arcane Pugilist, and even Fusion Magic.

That alone seemed enough to dominate conversation for an entire week.

But there was another fact that shocked the people of the kingdom even more.

—

In the reception room at Veiled Moonrise’s headquarters.

“What!? Azure Sea Whitecaps is coming under our banner!?”

After the Guild Showdown ended, Loren came to visit me, Lloyd, and bowed his head.

“I’m begging you! Let us serve under you, Boss!”

“Huh? W-Wait, where is this coming from!?”

“The last showdown and this one made it crystal clear to me! Just how incredible your power really is, Boss! We want you to make us stronger too!”

There was not a trace of joking in Loren’s expression. He truly meant it from the bottom of his heart.

I was happy to hear him say that, but I also needed a little time to prepare myself mentally.

“No, I mean, ‘Boss’…? I don’t have any fighting ability at all. I’m just an Advisor who can’t even battle.”

“If Boss can’t fight, then I’ll be your right arm, and Mint can be your left!”

I had not expected her name to come up here of all places.

I asked Loren again.

“Mint? What do you mea—”

“Greenpeak decided we’d come under your banner too, not just stay allies.”

My words were cut off.

Mint had entered the reception room, wearing a broad grin.

“Whaaaaaaaaaat!? How did it come to this!?”

Becoming subordinate to another guild was very different from simply forming an alliance.

The rankings themselves would not change, but half of the achievements of a guild that came under another’s banner would be transferred to the one above it.

In other words, Veiled Moonrise, which was ranked 22nd, would now receive the benefits of the 3rd- and 4th-ranked guilds.

“Then that only benefits us, doesn’t it?”

“No, it benefits us too. I want Boss to train me. And besides, I-I want to… experience Ellis’s magic too.”

Loren said that while scratching at his flushed cheek.

Had “trying out some crazy magic” become some kind of trend lately or something?

No, there was no way a guildmaster would act on purely personal feelings. I must have misheard him.

“I was never fully satisfied with just being allies in the first place. This Guild Showdown made me feel like I finally understand why Ellis-chan is so fixated on you, Lloyd.”

Mint spoke as though agreeing with Loren.

“The way we are now, we need your guidance, Lloyd.”

“Coming to you right after losing and saying ‘make us your subordinates’… I know that sounds awfully convenient. But I really do want to see where you’re headed, Boss, from up close. And after all the trouble I caused, I want to be of help too.”

The two of them solemnly knelt and bowed their heads.

“Uh…”

This was an old custom, a ritual used to swear oneself into another person’s service.

Yes. No matter what I said, the two of them had already made up their minds from the very beginning.

“Please, let us serve under Veiled Moonrise!”

The two of them pleaded with utterly serious expressions.

—

Feeling the resolve of Loren and Mint, I reluctantly gave in, and the two guilds officially came under the banner of Veiled Moonrise.

Right there on the spot, the three of us had a conversation like this.

“Veiled Moonrise, Greenpeak, Azure Sea… Hmm. They don’t really have anything in common. Lloyd, what are we going to call ourselves officially?”

Once this was no longer an alliance but a subordinate structure, it changed things.

Each individual guild would keep its own name, but taken together, the three of them would now be treated as a separate, larger organization.

“Since every one of us is out of the ordinary… Lunair. What do you think?”

“I’m all for it! It sounds cool, doesn’t it?”

“I like it too! Then from now on, the organization we’re building will be called Lunair!”

And so, we came to call ourselves Lunair.

†

“Hey, did you hear? Azure Sea Whitecaps and Greenpeak both came under the banner of a lower-ranked group.”

“Yeah, I heard! You mean Lunair, right?”

“Lunair? What’s that?”

“Apparently that’s the name of the organization. Third and fourth place going under twenty-second place? That’s no ordinary situation.”

Wherever one walked through the city, the people of the kingdom were whispering rumors.

“Come on… what even is this ‘Lunair’!?”

“It’s crazy, right? Didn’t Veiled Moonrise already have Nick’s guild under them too, the one that made the mana handgun?”

“No way, seriously!? What the hell is Veiled Moonrise!?”

“The guildmaster’s identity is seriously a mystery too. He doesn’t even seem to be a combat type…”

And in adventurer guilds and dungeons alike, adventurers spread the rumors.

Lunair had completely become a singularity within the Fereia Kingdom.

By now, there were probably fewer people in this country who did not know the name Lunair than those who did.

But Lloyd’s own name did not spread.

Was it because he came from the slums? Or because Kyros had covered up the fact that he had been expelled from Incarnation of the Sun?

Either way, it did not seem like Lloyd’s name would become widely known just yet.

†

One day, a week after the Guild Showdown, a current-status briefing was about to begin in the conference room of Veiled Moonrise.

I, Lloyd, called out to Serina, the maid handling reception in front of the meeting room.

“Ms. Serina, are the representatives all here?”

“Yes. All five are present. Also, Lord Lloyd, please stop speaking so politely.”

I was now the head of an organization whose name was being whispered throughout the entire kingdom. If I kept using polite speech with a maid, people might think I was small-time.

And yet, for some reason, she gave off the aura of someone truly formidable.

“Ah, right. Still, somehow I always end up using polite speech with you, Serina… Wait, five? Wasn’t it four?”

“There was one person who insisted on being included in the discussion no matter what. I thought it best to leave the decision to you, Lord Lloyd, so I allowed them into the room.”

This meeting was one that had gathered the representatives of Lunair.

I had thought there were supposed to be five members total, myself included, so who exactly was this extra person?

—

“Got it. Thanks.”

“Yes. Please call for me again once the meeting is over.”

After giving a bow, Serina returned to her work as a maid.

I had ended up pushing various guild-related errands onto Serina and her junior, Rei.

I might have to find a secretary sooner rather than later.

Whew. This was making me nervous…

Standing in front of the door, I took a deep breath. Once your position changed, the pressure weighing on you changed too.

It was no longer enough for me to protect Ellis and the others. I had to manage everyone affiliated with Lunair. That was the duty of the one standing at the top.

“Oh! So you finally made it, Boss!”

“Come on, let’s start already. I want to hurry home and practice Fusion Magic.”

When I entered the conference room, Loren and Mint were seated directly across from me.

They were sitting around a round table so they could all see one another’s faces.

The two of them looked full of life, their expressions completely different from a week ago.

And then there was someone who had changed in the opposite sense.

“Nick!? What happened to the bags under your eyes!?”

“M-Mr. Lloyd, there’s something I need to say to you.”

Nick, seated beside Mint, did not have the slightest trace of energy in his face. The bags under his eyes were so dark they looked as though someone had painted them on with a brush.

He staggered over to me and firmly grabbed both my shoulders.

“…too much…”

“Hm?”

His voice was too quiet to make out clearly, so I asked him to repeat himself.

At that, he threw his mouth wide open and roared at me from point-blank range.

“You really overdid it this timeeeeeee! Do you have any idea how busy I’ve gotten!?”

“O-Overdid it?”

“The mana handgun is one thing since I’m the one who made it, so fine, let’s set that aside. I’m talking about the new recruits!”

It had been a long time since Nick had raised his voice this much.

Maybe the newcomers had caused some kind of trouble.

“Did the new recruits do something?”

“Don’t give me that ‘did they do something’! Why’d you bring in people who are basically lumps of raw talent!? You’re putting my position in danger here!”

Nick appealed to me with tears in his eyes.

I had put him in charge of Twinwing Smiths, the blacksmiths’ guild established under Veiled Moonrise. We had brought in several new recruits before the Guild Showdown, but…

Apparently, those dark circles were the result of him staying up all night under the pressure of possibly being overtaken by his juniors.

As we were talking, another girl cut into the conversation.

“I think so too. Lord Lloyd goes too far.”

“Even you too, Elna!?”

She was Elna, the dark elf girl who served as guildmaster of Twinwing Alchemists, the alchemists’ guild under Veiled Moonrise.

“Everyone’s growing too fast. They’ll overtake me.”

“N-No, I mean… I think both of you have already become pretty monstrous yourselves…”

With a wry smile, I used 【Appraisal】 on the two of them.

.

[Nick]

Leadership　B→A　　 Guild Management　B→A Decoration　D→B

.

[Elna]

Ambition　D→A　　 Intelligence　C→B　　 Dexterity　C→B　　 Creation　E→C

.

Ordinarily, reaching that level of growth would have taken years. There were surely many craftsmen who never saw their efforts bear fruit no matter how hard they tried.

Even if I trained them seriously, an ordinary craftsman would never improve this much in such a short span of time.

This was the result of their tremendous effort.

They were grumbling that the new recruits might overtake them, but that was almost certainly not going to happen.

If the gap narrowed, the two of them would only work even harder to grow further. They both knew what it was like to hit rock bottom. When it came to effort, they would lose to no one.

“And the last one is… hm? Who’s that person in the hood?”

“So you finally noticed, Lloyd.”

Lastly, I turned my eyes toward the hooded man.

This man was probably the fifth person Serina had mentioned.

I could have identified him with 【Appraisal】, but since he had gone out of his way to wear a hood, it would have been rude to expose his identity without permission.

Then the man dramatically threw back his hood and, with a broad grin, declared:

“It’s me. Abaddon.”

“Huh?”

The man sitting in front of me wore an eyepatch and carried an imposing presence.

There was no mistake. It was Abaddon, the A-rank blacksmith. Even after using 【Appraisal】, the result was the same.

“W-Why are you here, Mr. Abaddon!?”

“Drop the formal speech already. It’s unsettling when a monster like you acts all deferential toward me.”

Abaddon said that with a sigh.

His expression looked somehow worn out.

He had probably heard about Nick’s mana handgun and taken a blow from the appearance of a rising star in the blacksmithing world.

“If you take a proper look at my status with 【Appraisal】, shouldn’t you be able to figure out why I came here?”

“My status? No, nothing’s really changed… huh?”

I looked over his status again, the one I had just checked a moment ago.

.

[Name]	Abaddon (29)
[Title]	Unaffiliated, A-rank Blacksmith
[Stats]	Vitality　B/A　　 Magic　C/B　　 Ambition　B/A Leadership　B/A　　 Intelligence　A/A
[Skills]	Blacksmith’s Mastery　A/S　　 Spirit Infusion　B/B
[Inherent Trait]	None
[Profession]	Blacksmith
[Attribute]	Devotion　A/A　　 Blade Crafting　A/S　　 Metal Shaping　A/A

.

There was nothing unusual in his stats or attributes.

But after examining every last detail, I finally noticed one major change.

“U-U-Unaffiliateddddd!?”

That was right. His major title, “Guildmaster of One-Eyed Workshop,” had become “Unaffiliated.”

And if he was unaffiliated, then that meant…

“W-What happened to One-Eyed Workshop!?”

Lately, so many shocking things had happened that I had started building up a resistance to them. Even so, this left me utterly dumbfounded, to the point that I forgot to use polite speech.

Abaddon answered as though it were nothing at all.

“Left it with Gadrick, the vice guildmaster. Unlike me, he’s smart, so he ought to be able to keep the guild going.”

“Left it with him? Don’t tell me…”

“Yeah. I quit.”

“Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat!?”

Hearing it directly from his own mouth made it hit even harder.

The finest blacksmith in the country had quit the country’s number one blacksmith guild. It was no exaggeration to call it major news that could shake the entire kingdom.

“The production line’s already been established. There’s no point in me staying there anymore.”

“No, no, even so, why quit!? That position should’ve been completely secure…”

“There was something I absolutely had to ask of you, Lloyd.”

He cut off my question.

“I want you to let me join Twinwing Smiths. That’s my wish.”

Abaddon fixed me with a serious look.

“I want you to make me this guy’s instructor. If it’s me, I can make him the number one blacksmith for sure.”

As he said that, Abaddon placed a hand on Nick’s head.

The two of them had crossed paths once before during a promotion exam. Apparently, he had taken quite a liking to Nick.

“What about you yourself? Aren’t you here because you wanted to keep growing too?”

“I’m fine. You’ve already shown me enough dreams, Lloyd. I’m basically retired as it is. From here on, I’m going to raise the blacksmith who’ll forge the next legend.”

After saying that, Abaddon straightened himself and bowed deeply once more, bending at the waist at a perfect right angle.

“Please… please let me work under you once again.”

Abaddon lowered his head deeply, with complete sincerity, as though facing me with his whole heart.

Back when I was still in Incarnation of the Sun, I had given Abaddon advice a few times. It seemed he had taken that to heart as a debt of gratitude.

He was the only active A-rank blacksmith in the kingdom. Even if he had left One-Eyed Workshop, he would have found a good place to work immediately. Under normal circumstances, he was the sort of person we should have been bowing our heads to.

But this time, things were a little complicated.

“What about Allen? You have a partnership contract with him, don’t you?”

That was the biggest issue of all.

Allen was, by all accounts, the current ace of Incarnation of the Sun. According to rumor, Abaddon had a personal contract with him.

“I handed that over to the vice guildmaster too. I came here prepared to retire as a blacksmith in the first place.”

In complete contrast to his earlier tone, Abaddon answered politely.

At the root of all this was the fact that One-Eyed Workshop had prioritized its ties with Incarnation of the Sun and refused to cooperate with Veiled Moonrise, which had left me with no choice but to establish Twinwing Smiths myself.

Abaddon had been one of the people involved in that matter, but if he had already left the organization and personally cut ties with Incarnation of the Sun, then there was no issue with hiring him.

To begin with, I had never even worked as a blacksmith, so there was only so much I could teach Nick. If it were Abaddon, he could instruct him ten times more efficiently than I ever could.

The only remaining issue was the judgment of Nick, the head of Twinwing Smiths.

“Nick, what do you think?”

“As guildmaster, I’m against it. He used to belong to the enemy camp. There’s no way I can trust him that easily.”

Nick shook his head from side to side as he answered. That was the correct decision for a guildmaster to make. If I had been in Nick’s position, I would have said the same.

But then his face darkened, as though he were forcing himself to make a painful decision, and he continued.

“But… as a blacksmith, I’m in favor… Mr. Abaddon’s guidance is exactly what I’m lacking right now.”

For Nick personally, having the strongest blacksmith become his instructor was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

Besides, Abaddon and Nick had similar circumstances in the past. Perhaps Abaddon saw some trace of his former, ill-fated self in Nick as well.

I placed a hand on Nick’s shoulder and, with a smile, said:

“Nick, you should do what you want to do. Managing the risks is my job.”

“Mr. Lloyd…”

I had neither the talent for blacksmithing nor the talent for combat.

If there was anything I could do as an Advisor, it was simply to create an environment where my companions could cut loose to their hearts’ content.

“Abaddon, I’ll ask you once more. Are you really sure about this? You’re still young. You could be aiming beyond this kingdom, even at the world…”

It was easy to forget because of how overwhelming his accomplishments were, but Abaddon was still only 29 years old. For a blacksmith, that was exactly the age when things were just beginning. It was the point where experience finally started to bear its finest results.

To retire at such a time would have been like throwing his life away.

But Abaddon cut me off again, shaking his head from side to side.

“I went about it the wrong way. I kept expanding and expanding without ever listening to your opinion, Lloyd. And in the end, it turned into a guild just like any other.”

Then why not start a new guild… I could not bring myself to say that.

He had come here having steeled himself in his own way. After leaving the guild he had built with his own hands, there was no way his pride would allow him to found another one.

“I have no intention of putting weapons or armor out into the world anymore. I just want you to guide me from time to time, Lloyd. That’s enough.”

What could quench Abaddon’s thirst was neither the title of the kingdom’s finest blacksmith nor the title of guildmaster. It was only the act of honing his own craft.

He had probably realized it too, after once reaching the summit. There was a limit to how far one could go alone.

“I want to support this guild from the shadows. Just like the Lloyd I admired.”

“I can’t exactly agree with the part about me being someone to admire, but I’ll approve your joining. The only thing left is Guildmaster Nick’s permission.”

Anyone could have seen it, not just someone like me who spent every day observing and appraising people.

It was obvious how much resolve Abaddon had come here with.

The fact that I had doubted him even a little felt ridiculous now. He too was a true craftsman, one who was not bound by titles or position.

Facing that man, Nick bowed his head deeply.

“The pleasure is mine. Master.”

“That’s my line. I’m counting on you, Guildmaster.”

And so, Abaddon newly joined Twinwing Smiths.

I had a feeling that if a history of blacksmiths were ever written in the future, this very moment would be recorded as a historic turning point.

“Then let’s begin the meeting. I intend to place Abaddon under Lunair as well. Is that all right?”

“““No objections.”””

Now that Abaddon’s position had been settled, we were finally able to begin the meeting.

As for Abaddon, we would do our best not to speak of him publicly. We could not lie on the paperwork submitted to the Adventurer’s Association, so anyone who investigated would find out, but if we did not spread it around ourselves, it was unlikely to become widely known.

“First, starting tomorrow, Mint and Loren will be diving into the Volcano Dungeon.”

Veiled Moonrise’s major objective was the conquest of the Volcano Dungeon.

Since neither of them had entered the Volcano Dungeon yet, they would have to begin clearing it from the first floor. Once a dungeon was fully conquered, it collapsed, and a new dungeon was born in its place. That cycle happened frequently. So even for guildmasters, it was not unusual for there to be dungeons they had never entered.

“From the twenty-third floor onward, quality matters more than numbers. So I want Mint and Loren to go in by themselves.”

Executives like Marcus, Alterna, and Luce might barely have been able to keep up.

But Mint and Ellis were on a different level entirely. In my estimation, Mint could become S-rank if official approval were granted, and Ellis too was just on the verge of reaching S-rank. If they fought seriously, ordinary A-rank adventurers would do little more than hold them back.

“Come to think of it, I’d been meaning to ask. What’s Lunair’s ultimate goal?”

“Yeah, I’m curious too! A goal’s important!”

“We’re aiming for the number one guild spot, right?”

“Number one. With everyone here, we can do it.”

Mint, Loren, Nick, and Elna each spoke their minds in turn.

They probably all thought Lunair’s goal was to reach first place in the guild rankings.

With a lineup this extravagant, anyone would assume as much.

But among them, there was one person who had already seen through my thinking.

“This is Lloyd we’re talking about, isn’t it? Something like that’s just a stepping stone. There’s got to be a bigger goal than that.”

Yes, the one who said that was Abaddon, the one who had known me the longest.

I nodded in agreement with his words.

“As expected of you, Abaddon. That’s exactly right.”

““““Huh?””””

The other four cried out as though they could not believe what they had just heard. That was only natural.

And to them, I declared a dream grand enough to sound almost impossible.

“Our goal is to live lives where every single day feels like a happy one.”

Not to become number one in Fereia, nor number one in the world.

Just the simple, ordinary goal of everyone smiling and living happily day after day, even if it felt hopelessly far removed from reality.