Protagonist Knows Everything - Chapter 33

Both of them nodded in harmony.

“Then I’ll use it to rebuild our guild.”

“……”

“……”

They both looked at me, bewildered.

After a few moments Kasha muttered, “Heh. We won’t be able to change Tay’s decision.”

“Yeah. Let’s just proceed with the plan we made earlier.”

“Huh? What plan?”

“A plan.”, Sain replied.

I tilted my head thinking that Sain would reply but she just ignored it.

Then Kasha suddenly spoke up, “I will help too.”

“I see, Ms. Kasha is quick to notice.”

“I’ve been thinking about it recently as well.”

They looked at each other’s faces and smiled without telling me a single thing.

‘What’re they talking about? Must be something trivial.  At least I can use this money to construct the guild.’

***

Dirk went through the ledger several times and then lent out a worn out sigh while looking up at the ceiling.

“It’s falling apart like this.”

***

The circumstances of the Wyvern Guild are worse than I thought.

You don’t even need to look at the numbers, one can say that just after visiting the lobby.  All the receptionists are standing idly without nothing to do.  None of the high rank adventurers are coming in.  Though that’s a good thing considering the current situation.

The number of quests requests coming to the guild has fallen down dramatically.

First the Siris chamber then the Hagnut Guilds achievements in the S-class quest. All of it worked against us.  Now, only the Hagnut guild is commissioned for quests; not only in Kelk city but almost all the requests from other regions go to the Hagnut Guild.

Thanks to that even Guild master Von has lost his mind.

‘I’ll just have to contact Zen.’

It’s been less than a week since I last contacted Zen.

He’s one of the only connections that the Wyvern Guild has left. The only one who can put in a quest request.  Thinking about that I went out to meet Zen.

As the Deputy Guild master of the Wyvern Guild, I didn’t even need an appointment to meet Zen, I could do that anytime if Zen didn’t have an exceptionally busy schedule.

“Deacon Zen?”

A butler I saw for the first time asked in a rather confused voice.

I nodded and said, “Yes.”

“He’s no longer the butler.”

“Haha.”

At first I thought that he was joking.  However, that person was dead serious.

“Don’t you know? He was stripped of his title and then thrown out of the mansion near naked.”

“What, what? Why?”

“I don’t know it very well, but it seems that he harmed the heir of this estate. It’s a miracle that he’s still alive.”

A sudden chill ran up my spine and questions flooded my mind.

‘Thrown out? We just met a few days ago? Who did it? No, wait.’

Then I remembered that a few days prior to my visit Zen had a meeting with the Hagnut Guild.

He must have been there.  ‘Taylor Mason.’

“In just a few days….”

Before saying anything unnecessary I composed myself and asked, “Well, what about the new butler?”

“For the time being the Lord will work himself.”

“Then let me have a meeting with the Lord!”

At that, the butler just smiled with pity.  It’s been a while since I was treated as a crazy guy.

With Zen gone, the Wyvern Guild’s food supply was completely cut-off.

I just returned to the guild after that.

There I received the news that the Hagnut Guild rented the site of the former Siris warehouse.  And that the renovations had already begun.

With that the additional hope I had was also lost.

“Challenging the Hagnut Guild was a mistake.”

***

The Hagnut Guild’s renovations had begun.

I was the head of the HR team, so my main job… No, besides my job as the receptionist, I was also busy overseeing the construction process. During my off times.

I told Sain, “Sain. I’ll head there first. I want to make sure everything is proceeding smoothly.”

“Ah yes. You go there everyday anyway.”

“I have to make sure that everything is being constructed according to the plans.”

In my previous life, I had experienced office relocation and interior work twice.

Even if the construction itself is done by the company, there are many things that get twisted if someone from the client’s side doesn’t visit the site regularly.  So I was wondering why Sain wasn’t worried about that. Knowing my boss’s personality she should be the most worried one.

“Is Ms. Sain not going to go today?”

Of course, she also went to the construction site but the frequency of her visits were way lower than mine.

Then Sain replied with an apologetic expression, “Sorry, I have some other things to do today.”

She had recently started behaving like this.

Without asking anything else I just opened the register.

[17 hours ago: Completed the purchase of a first-class mansion in Arin district.]

[Concerns: I wonder which kind of furniture will be good.]

With that all of my doubts were cleared.

‘Sain was shifting to a different house.’

She was no longer the leader of the once shabby Hagnut Guild.  Now, the Hagnut Guild was the top guild in all of Kelk city.  After such an achievement it’s only natural that you’d want to relax and enjoy the fruits of your labour.

I thought that it was a bit early but I decided to head to the site.

‘Even though Sain was so young, she had to endure countless hardships till now, she deserves some rest now.’

Like that I organized my thoughts as I was heading towards the door.

Then suddenly, the guild door was slammed open.

“Sain! I’m back.”

“The door is broken.”

“No it isn’t, I didn’t slam it that hard.”

‘So you admit that you slammed it open.’

“Didn’t you just hear the sound that it made?”

Kasha ignored my question and ran swiftly towards Sain, and then whispered to her.

“I found a good place. It’s just a little bit far, is that okay?”

“Yeah. Sure it is.”

This time, I checked Kasha’s personnel records.

[15 hours ago: Sain asked her to search for shops with decent furniture.]

[8 hours ago: Went around the whole of Kelk city and found a few shops.]

‘You’re not even doing a quest!’

‘No, let’s be a bit more patient.’

Like Sain, Kasha works hard for the guild, she also deserves a bit of free time.

After a while, the two looked at me strangely and went outside.

I got busy with my work after those two left.  ‘How far did the construction proceed today?’

***

After three months the new Hagnut Guild was finally complete.

During those three months I supervised the interviews for the recruitment of new employees and in the end I was the one who selected the final candidates. Everyone was ready to work on the day of reopening and the number of employees nearly doubled.

“Victory.”

There were no other words that could describe the Hagnut Guild’s current condition, more than this.

The night before the opening of the new guild. I was walking Sain to her home.

Suddenly, Sain said, “It’s finally tomorrow.”

All the furniture and supplies had already been moved to the new building.  On our way Sain handed over the keys to the ‘former’ building as well.

“Are you excited?” I asked.

“I’d be lying if I said no. But you were the one who worked the most.”

“I just did what I had to do.”

“Haha, since when did receptionists start supervising construction sites?”

We just kept on walking while conversing about how things changed a lot in the last year.

We reached the crossroad where I was supposed to leave Sain, it was fairly close to her place. So it was a safe place to leave her.

“Then, have a comfortable night.”

“Mr. Tay. Wait.”

“Huh?”

“There’s something that I want to show you. Can you come with me?”

I quietly nodded in agreement.  Sain took the lead after that.

After silently walking for about 20 minutes we reached Arin district.  The place where the richest of the nobles of Kelk city lived.  Beautiful mansions were erected everywhere.

Sain stopped in front of a beautiful mansion like them.

“Here.” She said.

This was the house that Ms. Sain had moved to.

I shrugged once and said, “It’s a bit late, but, congratulations.”

“Heh?”

“You didn’t say anything so I stayed silent as well. Did you move Sain?”

“……”

“Is it housewarming today? It seems a bit late for that.”

Sain looked at me with a blank face, then suddenly burst into laughter.

“Ahaha!”

This was the first time I saw Sain laugh like that.

After a few moments Sain looked at me, wiping the tears from her eyes.

“You’re a little dull. Mr. Tay.”

“What?”

“I was worried that Mr. Tay would’ve noticed it. It’s rather good that you didn’t.”

[Jingle]

Sain handed me something.  It was a pack of keys.

I couldn’t accept it and looked at her blankly.

Then, in a playful voice she said, “What are you doing? Take it.”

“And what would I need them for?”

“They’re house keys, you’d need them to enter a house.”

“……”

“Mr. Tay. I know you’ve been staying in the inn room. From now on, stay here.”

At that moment, I realized something.

This woman, she…… she doesn’t give me incentives, salary increases, treatment improvements or promotions, etc.

But rather she was giving me a house.

“Our guild has grown this much only because of Mr. Tay.”

“……”

“I always knew I had to do something in return. Actually, I want to do something even greater, but I fear this is my limit.”

“Sain.”

“Take it. Hurry. My arms are starting to hurt.”

I slowly reached out and took the keys.  I couldn’t say anything for a while.  This is the first time something like this happened to me.

A few minutes later I slowly opened my mouth, hoping that my voice didn’t crack, I said, “If you give too much preferential treatment to an employee, it can lead to a dispute among the other employees…”

“Huh.”

Sain just stood there, laughing without answering my question.

“Why are you laughing?”

“Because Mr. Limer was right. He did say that you’d say something like that.”

My eyes were wide open, “What do you mean?”

“Everyone else already knows about this.”

“……”

“It’s true that our guild is gaining a lot of money, but I still can’t do something like this alone. All of this was decided in a meeting when Mr. Tay was out supervising the construction site.”

She looked straight into my eyes and continued. “You know what I mean, right? I am not the only one who’s grateful to Mr. Tay.”

“……”

“All the basic furniture and supplies are in there. Please bring your remaining possessions from the inn yourself.”

She was a little cold towards the end, but after telling me everything she took my hand and gave me a warm handshake.

I just stared blankly at my hands, not knowing what to say.

“Thank you very much. For the upcoming future as well. Thank you very much.”

“Yeah.” I blankly replied.

“Then have a comfortable night.”

She then turned and walked away.

I just stood there like a log for a while, then opened the door with the keys and went in.

The house was in a neat state, as if it had already been cleaned repeatedly.  The necessary furniture was there as well

‘This is closer to my taste than that of Sain’s.’

Kasha and Sain must have pondered a lot to match them with things I’d like.

On the table, there was a bottle of some expensive looking alcohol.  I poured myself a cup and stood by the window.  The moonlight was shining through the window creating a wonderful atmosphere within the house.

There was one year when I blocked the Department of Labor audits, improved the recruitment and evaluation system, and established several welfare systems as well.  That year, I was selected as an excellent employee and received a reward of 1 million won.

‘A mansion and 1 million won.’

“Is there anything to compare?”

I muttered, shining the glass in the moonlight, “Cheers to the best job.”