Secret Agent Chapter 101 - The Pitch (Patreon)

Zack Adder’s goal for this meeting was to get the Guild to help him out with his business.

If he had all day, he could just lurk in the Guildhall and rent out the cards himself.

But he had better things to do with his time.

No, letting the Guild receptionists handle it was more time efficient.

Between the [Reading] lessons at the orphanage, regular meetings with Cori, and work at the Theater every day, Zack simply didn’t have the time to handle this himself.

And not for an expected one lindra per rental, either. That would be, what, a handful of lindra a day, maybe?

Besides which, the Guild Receptionists were already right there, and had a good grasp on the open quests and Adventurer’s capabilities.

Supposedly.

Jack Werdruf’s experience with the Guild had been hit and miss, in a rather extreme way.

Forced to sign up because of accidentally [Taming] a venomous snake.

Pushed to hunt thurgenrats by a self-motivated Receptionist.

Forced to join in the fighting during an emergency.

Those were the negatives.

But Stacy had been much better since she was scolded by Rosa, and Belinda had been fine, and Claude had been exceedingly helpful.

The training day put on by the Kingdom had been a trap, but the trainers themselves had been fine, and Lang had been a good leader.

And between his day as a courier, and his day solo hunting, he had made a good bit of money.

Actually, that was almost all the money he had made since arriving in this world.

A wide range of good and bad outcomes from dealing with an organization…

The inconsistency was a sign of bad management.

It was with his own history with the Guild in mind, and feelings of apprehension, that Zack followed Stacy up the stairs in the back to the second, and then the third floor of the Guildhall, where there was a hallway lined with mostly closed doors. One door was ajar, and the characteristic light from a light crystal poured out into the dim hallway.

Stacy led him inside and Zack beheld a small meeting room. There was a long table, with seats for ten, though only three seats were occupied, lined up on one side of the table. The room was lit from above by a hanging lamp over the center of the table.

“Here you go, Jack.” She gestured for him to take a seat on the empty side of the table.

“Thank you, Stacy.” Rosa said dismissively, seated closest to the door. “Adventurer Jack Werdruf, you can take a seat.”

Stacy turned on her heel and left, closing the door behind her.

Zack felt intimidated.

He leaned on his [Resist Intimidation] skill, and it failed.

[Calm Down] worked, however, and so he maintained his cool as he stepped smoothly to his seat and sat down directly across from the vice guildmaster in the middle. The only person in the room he had never seen before.

That must be VG Harmut.

He had heard his name before, in passing, the day he had [Tamed] Sienna.

According to Gerald, VG Harmut was a fan of the Rose Theater. Though as Zack looked at him, he didn’t recognize him.

He was an older man, though with youthful features. A full head of straight brown hair, a little long, styled such that part of it draped over his forehead and eye. He smiled easily, and Zack could only imagine that he was popular with women.

But Zack could see his aura, faintly.

It was a deep, deep blue, verging into indigo.

He was strong. Zack could sense it.

Rosa sat next to him, without any visible aura, but from her body language she was a little stiff and endeavoring to be professional. Normal for a late evening work meeting.

It was the VG to Zack’s right, farthest from the door, who was most intimidating.

VG Raiger.

On the night of the thurgenrat invasion, it was Raiger who had been directed by, presumably, the actual Guildmaster to get Zack—Jack—outfitted with some basic armor and sent on his way to hunt down thurgenrats.

Raiger was a heavyset… overweight man.

But he was strong.

His aura was a mix of red and blue that somehow wasn’t purple, and Zack idly noted in a corner of his mind that aura colors didn’t seem to work like colors in real life.

It was a threatening aura.

Predators, Sienna communicated through their bond.

Zack set her case down on the floor next to his seat, and sat down.

Raiger had a round face, and brown hair cut short and styled with a neat-side part, and brown eyes just a shade light enough to be distinguished from black. He raised his hands from his lap and placed them on the table, interlacing his fingers, and Zack could see the muscles in his forearms flexing as he did.

He wore a slight frown on his face, and his eyes were narrowed as he looked at Zack.

VG Harmut broke the brief silence that had taken hold.

“Oh, no, no, come now, bring your taipan up to the table, would you? I’ve been looking forward to seeing a taipan up close for a long time, and even more so since you joined the Guild, Jack!”

His voice was a smooth baritone, and his tone friendly.

Wait.

Zack raised a hand.

“One moment. Sienna’s rather shy.”

Raiger’s eyes narrowed a fraction of a millimeter further. Harmut leaned forward eagerly. Rosa sighed.

“Veejee Harmut, please…”

“Ahem, of course.” After Rosa’s word of caution, the handsome man in the middle leaned back and spread his hands magnanimously. “We wouldn’t want to upset the specimen… I mean, Sienna, now would we?”

Danger people, Sienna worried.

“Sienna’s also rather tired from our hunt today.” Zack opened with a reason to say no, but Harmut interjected.

“We can at least introduce ourselves, no?”

Zack frowned. So did Rosa.

Raiger merely observed them, giving off a sense of pressure.

Zack hesitated, but Sienna picked up on his feelings.

Short look okay.

“Alright, briefly…” Zack placed the latched clearsteel case on the table in front of him, and Sienna eyed the three Guild leaders from within. Rosa, Harmut, and even Raiger leaned forward slightly to get a better look.

“She seems to have grown since the last time I saw her,” Rosa said. “Hello again, Sienna.”

“Ahh, so this is the taipan… Fascinating.” Harmut’s eyes practically sparkled as he raked his eyes over her coiled body.

“Indeed, she has grown a bit,” Raiger said. Zack recalled that he would have seen her on his shoulders, that night. Unlike Harmut, Raiger placed a hand on his chest and dipped his head to the snake. “I am Veejee Raiger.”

His hand fell and he looked at Zack. “Would she like to get our scents?” He left unsaid the implication that the case would need to be opened.

No. Case closed.

“No, she’d rather return to resting,” Zack answered diplomatically, and Harmut looked crestfallen for a moment before he recovered.

“Ahem,” Rosa cleared her throat and straightened up in her chair. “The agenda for this meeting is a request from Adventurer Jack Werdruf regarding a business partnership with the Adventurer’s Guild, which I assessed as beneficial to Guild interests.”

Harmut sighed, and Raiger waved a hand.

“You can put her down, now. Thank you for indulging us, Jack.”

“Yes, thank you,” Harmut added sadly.

Sienna was relieved to be down near the floor and out of sight once more.

Now Zack felt bad he’d brought her here in the first place. She wasn’t really relevant to the discussion, anyway.

Saa don’t worry.

Well, if Sienna was okay…

He cleared his own throat, and used [Calm Down] once more.

“Yes. If I may?”

Rosa nodded and Zack pulled out the fifteen cards that had been finished and laminated already, as well as three laminated test strips. There was an almost physical sensation of relief as the two VGs shift their attention from himself to the cards.

And so, he made his pitch. About the outstanding requests, how the cards worked, how he envisioned Adventurers using the cards, and his desire to have the Guild receptionists handle the cards themselves.

*ding!* The skill [Propose] has been acquired!

Zack managed to [Stifle] his reaction and [Act] normal. Intuitively, he could feel that the skill was related to his [Negotiation] skill.

Once he finished his initial pitch, Rosa picked up the thread and elaborated on the requests that were going unfulfilled, about how even before the thurgenrat swarm in the forest, there had been several retirements among the Adventurers who used to handle plant gathering requests, and the difficulty in explaining to Adventurers the proper way to gather and transport the materials.

“Adventurer Jack Werdruf himself brought in nearly seven pounds of very high quality Belladonna primitiva stalks, so I’m confident that his cards are accurate.”

Harmut and Raiger, interestingly, were focused almost entirely on the information on the cards, rather than the lamination.

“I’m familiar with gathering, myself,” Raiger said, his deep voice rumbling. “These instructions are indeed accurate.” He raised his eyes from the card in his hand to peer up at Zack. “And yet the only gathering request you’ve fulfilled was for the Belladonna primitiva.” He tapped a card on the table, for Pilgrim’s Balm Leaf. “How did you get this information?”

“I consulted with an expert,” Zack replied.

Raiger continued to stare at him silently, and after a moment, Harmut joined in, failing to restrain a grin from raising the corners of his lips.

Zack waited a moment longer, to show that he wasn’t going to elaborate, and then shrugged his shoulders.

It was Harmut who broke the silence.

“And you came up with the designs on your own, eh?”

“Yes.”

“Did you draw them yourself?”

“No, I hired an artist.”

“When?”

Zack frowned.

“Why is that relevant?”

He was reluctant to give up his business relations, lest the Guild simply copy the idea and give out the cards themselves.

Rosa answered his concern directly. “The Guild isn’t interested in stealing your idea, Jack. There’s a legal concern.”

“A legal concern?”

Raiger tapped a card again. “There’s almost no writing on this card. Almost, but not none.”

Zack blinked. “Is that a problem?”

Harmut leaned forward and interlaced his fingers in front of his face, with his elbows on the table.

“It’s important,” he said a little slowly, “that you came up with this idea independently, and without direct influence from Guild staff.”

“Why?” Zack couldn’t help but ask.

Harmut sighed and leaned back in his chair, dropping his hands to the table’s edge.

“That has to do with how the Guild came to the Kingdom of Forti.”