Chapter 160 -- Elland-san, Taken In Hand

We went to the Adventurers Guild the following day so I could request the dismantling of the five Orcs Dora-chan and Sui-chan had subjugated as well as the assorted bird monsters Fer had hunted after his bath. When we appeared at the reception desk, the staff member on duty hurried off to summon Elland-san who soon arrived.

"Mukouda-san, we are still considering what we will purchase from you." he said, before I could explain why we were here. He looked rather harried. "We should have it all sorted out by tomorrow, I promise."

"Ah, that's not why I'm here, Elland-san." I quickly interjected. "We subjugated some monsters yesterday and I came to the Guild to have them dismantled as soon as possible." Along with the five Orcs, Fer had hunted four Cockatrices, a Rock Bird and an oversized ostrich-type bird which my Appraisal skill informed me was something called a Giant Tarepo. Our stocks of bird-based monster meat were running very low, especially after our trip through the dungeon where bird-type meat had been a very rare drop so the sooner I got these monsters disassembled the better. I would, as always, keep the meat but sell off the other materials.

"Oh, is that so?" Elland-san brightened up. "Let me show you the way down to the warehouse then."

"No, no." I said. "It’s okay. I can queue up at the purchasing window today, no need to take you away from your duties." As I said that Elland-san glanced behind him with a worried expression on his fine Elvish features. Was Doran's Guild Master, a former S-rank Adventurer scared of something, here in the heart of the city, within the premises of the Guild itself?

"No, no need for you to wait, Mukouda-sama. Let's go." With that Elland-san led me down to the warehouse door, still casting nervous glances over his shoulder. Today's haul was Orc and Cockatrice and the like, nothing special, why did he not want me to wait at the purchase window and why did he insist on personally escorting me down to the warehouse when I knew the way perfectly well? I couldn't understand it...

In the warehouse there were several staff members carrying out dismantling duties, unlike the last time I had been here after Elland-san had taken on the task of single-handedly dismantling Fer's Earth Dragon. I assumed he had ordered everyone else to leave the warehouse while he dealt with that self-imposed task.

"So, so, what did you get? Let us see it please." Elland-san said, slapping his hand on the top of the workbench.

"Oh? Guild Master, what are you doing here today?" A staff member about 30 years old who looked to be in charge of the dismantling efforts in the warehouse today called out as he caught sight of the tall Elf.

"Hey, Marcel-kun. Sorry to interrupt you but I just brought Mukouda-san down to the warehouse." Elland-san said. Marcel-kun was the staff member in charge of dismantling, it appeared. He looked at me quizzically, perhaps bothered by the fact the Guild Master had personally escorted me here. I'm sure if I had been working away in my office back home and the owner of the company had turned up out of the blue with an unknown person at his side then I'd be unsure what was going on too.

"Mukouda-san here is the most talked about person in Doran right now, Marcel-kun. He's first Adventurer ever to conquer Doran's dungeon and defeat the final boss. You must have heard others in the Guild discussing his achievement, right?"

Marcel looked at the rather ordinary-looking person in front of him with some puzzlement in his eyes then he noticed Fer and Dora-chan behind me and he realised the rather ordinary-looking person, i.e. me, introduced to him by the Guild Master as the conqueror of Doran's famously high-difficulty dungeon had some help in that task. "Oh", he mouthed silently.

I sighed, it was the same sort of response I received when we exited the dungeon and reappeared near the entrance, the same kind of looks I had received from the crowd after Fer's announcement to them that we had conquered the dungeon. I should be used to it by now. Really.

"That’s why I escorted you here you, Mukouda-sama." Elland-san explained with a strained smile on his face. Uh, no? And what's with the '-sama', Elland-san? That's not the honorific you use normally when we're discussing things in your office. I'd rather we had just carried out our business at the regular purchase window upstairs. I should have insisted on it, I shouldn't have let him drag me down here...

"My intuition tells me Mukouda-san has something unusual for us to disassemble for him." Elland-san said to Marcel-kun. "I'm looking forward to finding out what it is." My heart sank. No, Elland-san, Fer did not subjugate another Dragon. My hasty promise to him yesterday that he'd get first dibs on disassembling any Dragons Fer hunted in the future had gone to his Dragon-obsessed head, it seemed.

Marcel-kun's ears pricked up at Elland-san's words. "Is that so?" he said, turning his attention back to me. Of course Marcel-kun was a craftsman who worked in Doran's Guild as a disassembler and naturally he would also be interested in uncommon monsters that he might be presented with in the course of his work.

"That ’s right, so now, please put them all here as soon as possible." Elland-san said to me again, slapping the workbench loudly, thump thump thump!

"Really, Elland-san, is this truly part of your job?" I protested.

"It ’s okay." he smiled. "If you have a Deputy Guild Master like I do, everything will run smoothly in my absence. I don't have to be in charge all the time." No, no, it’s not okay, Guild Master Elland-san. Don't bunk off work to play around in places like this. You'll only make the Deputy Guild Master angry again.

"Come on, come on, quick, quick." The workbench received more slaps. Okay then, I'll do it but don't blame me if you get into trouble. I took the assorted monsters out of the Item Box one after another and put them on the workbench.

"Let's see, I want all the meat returned but please buy the other items. Five Orcs, four Cockatrices, a Rock Bird and that large bird is a Giant Tarepo." Whatever that was. My Appraisal had just given me its name with no extra information about it. Fer's only addition to my knowledge of the creature was the important (to Fer) fact that it was good to eat.

"Giant Tarepo?!" Elland-san's eyes lit up. "You see, my intuition was right!" Eh, is this ostrich-type bird so unusual?

"A- amazing..." Marcel-kun stuttered. "Giant Tarepo, it's the first time I've ever seen one..." So it was a rare monster then.

"But where did you find a Giant Tarepo?" Elland-san asked, looking at Fer.

"Nuuu, that thing? I caught it in the grasslands at the tip of the forest on the south side of the city." Fer replied.

"Really?" Elland-san thought for a moment. "Yes, that area, hmmm... Four or five years ago there were reports that a Giant Tarepo had been seen in that vicinity. However it's not an easy monster to subjugate." According to Elland-san the Giant Tarepo cannot fly but it can run very fast, like the ostriches I knew from my own world.

"If a Giant Tarepo runs away from a subjugation party it's nearly impossible to catch it. Normally a number of Earth Magic users would make a solid enclosure somewhere and the others in the party would drive the Giant Tarepo into the trap." I see. That sounded complicated, and expensive too. It explained why Giant Tarepo were rarely offered for sale at the Guild.

"Fer, how did you manage to hunt this?" I asked. Had he used long-range magic of some kind?

"I must admit I did have to put in more effort than normal to catch up with it but the chase was good exercise," he said languidly. "I just needed to stretch my legs a bit, that's all." I sighed. Fer was really beyond understanding these days.

"Hey, is that really a Tarepo?" Unnoticed by me, the other members of the dismantling team were now crowding around the workbench. "I've never seen one before."

"Me too."

"Has anyone brought a Tarepo into the Guild in the last few years?"

"Oh, I don't think so. If a Tarepo had been brought in folks would have been talking about it forever."

Elland-san clapped his hands. "Right you lot, back to work." He said in a loud voice, pointing to the monsters on the workbench. "Let's get these other monsters dismantled, the Orcs and Cockatrices and the Rock Bird. After that you can all watch while Marcel-kun dismantles the Giant Tarepo, since you've never seen it done before and this is a chance for you to learn."

The team of dismantlers got back to work eagerly, quickly disassembling the Orcs and other monsters. I'm not good with gory stuff so I stared at the ceiling a lot and tried to ignore the noises from the various workbenches around the warehouse. Chop, crunch, hack, slash, chunk! What sort of recipes could I make with these monsters once I had their meat? Concentrate on that, don't listen, don't look...

"Good, everyone seems to have finished." Elland-san announced a remarkably short time later. This was the Doran Guild, of course and unlike the other Guild warehouses I had been in there was more than one dismantler working in here. It was still a surprise to me just how quickly such large monsters could be taken apart into their component pieces by experienced workers.

"Let's dismantle the Tarepo now." He waved his hand. "Marcel-kun, I leave it up to you."

"Yes, sir." Marcel-kun started to work on the Tarepo while the other dismantlers stood around watching closely.

Elland-san said, "This is where you should..." and "That part there, you cut it like this...", standing at Marcel-kun's shoulder and directing him through the dismantling process. It seemed the Elf had experience in dismantling a Giant Tarepo, not too surprising given his extended age. Me, I didn't think I'd ever have to do it myself so I looked away a lot of the time, giving the ceiling of the warehouse some more close examination.

"I'm very satisfied with your work." Elland-san said as Marcel-kun finished up with the ostrich-like bird. "Dealing with this rare kind of monster has been a worthwhile exercise and good training for you all." The dismantlers agreed unanimously.

"Right then, it's time to work out the payments due." Elland-san went on. "Mukouda-san is exempt from covering the costs of dismantling these monsters, so..."

"Guild Master! This is where you were hiding!" This outburst came from a rather overweight bald man who hurried into the warehouse as Elland-san was speaking. The Elf's features froze as the newcomer's voice rang through the room.

"U-, Ugor-kun, what are you doing here..." Elland-san stuttered. Was this Ugor-san the Deputy Guild Master? I had seen him before, I think, at the door of the Guild when Elland-san was dragging me off to cook Dragon steaks at his house over a week ago.

"The question is, what are YOU doing here?!" the man stumped towards Elland-san who looked around frantically as if trying to find an escape route but Ugor-san was between him and the only exit to the warehouse. "I only found out Mukouda-sama was down here because the Guild receptionist told me. This is a very busy time for us, there's lots of proper work for you to be getting on with upstairs you know."

What have you done to make him so angry, Elland-san? Ugor-san stopped and faced me.

"Ah, Mukouda-sama, permit me to introduce myself." He bowed politely. "I'm Doran's Deputy Guild Master, my name's Ugor. Thanks to your efforts the Guild has been exceptionally profitable over the past few weeks. Thank you very much." The fierce expression on his face had disappeared and he smiled at me. I replied with a "Thank you." in return.

The introductions and pleasantries out of the way, Ugor-san turned again to face the Guild Master who was sidling around the workbench, possibly hoping to make a dash for the warehouse door and freedom.

"Guild Master, thanks to Mukouda-sama here, we're making more money than any time in the past, in fact since the Guild started here in Doran! We're being inundated by purchase requests from other Guilds and assorted noble families, enquiries about premium goods and..." the fat man sighed. "Right now I'd settle for a cat helping me, I'm working so hard here. We've not even decided on the list of dungeon drop items we're going to purchase from Mukouda-sama, the Merchants Guild wants to get involved in the purchases and sales and we need to sort that out quickly before they rob us blind." He poked a finger at the browbeaten Elf. "It all needs to get done and right now so please don't think you can go home today any time soon."

"No, no, I'm not good at jobs like that..." Elland-san pleaded. "So it’s better to entrust that sort of thing to your good self, Ugor-kun."

"What are you saying?" Ugor-san exploded. "Are you telling me to do your job for you?" He strode back and forth, clearly furious, then stopped and pointed at a cringing Elland-san again. "We're incredibly busy right now and the Guild needs you to do your job diligently, Guild Master. But..." Ugor-san shook his finger. "If you really want me to take over your duties, then the first thing I'll do as acting Guild Master is to sell off THAT thing you always stare at when you come to the office every morning."

"No! No, you can't do that!!" Elland-san shouted. "Absolutely not! I convinced you and you agreed, if we make it into a sword it would attract lots of Adventurers to the Guild here. You can't stop me making the Dragon Sword, you can't!"

"Yes, I was convinced by what you said and I agreed that a Dragon Sword would indeed be a fine advertisement for the Guild." Ugor-san retorted. "But the Guild needs to make money to survive and prosper. If you don't work hard the the Guild will need to make money some other way and selling THAT thing off will do the job nicely in that case. Of course," Ugor-san examined his fingernails closely, "if you don't like that option then you should work hard to ensure the Guild makes money some other way, please." He looked up at the stricken Elf. "Work properly, I won't sell it. Don't work, I'll sell it. If you're clear about your options and the consequences then I suggest you return immediately to your office where your work awaits you."

Elland-san looked as if he was going to continue his protest but Ugor-san's hard eyes held no pity for the malingering Guild Master. After a few seconds he walked slowly past the Deputy Guild Master towards the warehouse's door, his feet dragging at every step. Ugor-kun watched him pass then turned back to the room.

"Ah, Marcel-kun, good work and continue with what you were doing. Oh, and while Mukouda-san is living in the city, he is exempt from dismantling costs." Saying that, Ugor-san turned and followed the defeated Guild Master from the warehouse, closing the door behind them.

So that was Ugor-san, the Deputy Guild Master? Incredible. I supposed that since he had to deal with Elland-san every day he had learned how to handle him. I wished him the best in the future while wondering if he could perhaps give me some tips on working with the mercurial Guild Master.

I gave some thought to 'THAT thing', the thing that Elland-san apparently spent his mornings staring at while not-working, was it the Earth Dragon's fang I had sold to the Guild? It sounded like it, Elland-san's precious Dragon Sword needed the fang as a magical ingredient after all. Perhaps his decision to purchase it "for the Guild" it wasn't as altrustic as he had made out after all. Misappropriation of company funds, well...

"We're ready to pay you for your materials." Marcel-san's voice broke into my thoughts. He and all of the other dismantling staff had got well out of the way as soon as Ugor-san had appeared, keeping busy and appearing not to notice the tongue-lashing he had delivered to the Guild Master. It seemed it was not an uncommon occurrence for such things to happen here given Elland-san's inability to learn his lesson.

I started to pack away the meat from the Orcs and other monsters while Marcel gave me an accounting of the payment for the materials the Guild were buying, a total of 85 gold coins. It was an unexpected sum given that we hadn't actually gone out to specifically hunt for monsters yesterday but I wasn't amazed by the amount any more. Marcel handed over a now-familiar sack of coins, I thanked him and his colleagues for their hard work, said goodbye and left the Guild. Everyone would be getting hungry so I'd prepare dinner once we got back to the inn.

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