Chapter 107: Be Careful with the Provisional Contract

The guild’s reception room was quiet in a way the reference room never was.

The boarded floor was polished, but looked old and long-used. Simple shelves stood against the wall. On the table, papers and an inkpot were arranged in good order. Having set a single sheet of parchment down on the table, Eugene looked straight at Ren.

“This is the provisional contract I would like to put to you.”

Ren looked hard at the papers Eugene had spread out on the table. Set out on them were clauses concerning the technique and the design of the “char quill pen” and the “char-core quill pen” Ren had devised.

Before Ren could raise the thing that most concerned him, Eugene smiled gently, as though getting there first.

“You’re nine years old and a minor. But you’ve already completed your registration with the guild as an apprentice adventurer. A great many people come tumbling into an Adventurers’ Guild with nobody behind them — orphans among them. So the guild has a rule: anyone who has completed apprentice registration may enter into a contract as an individual, without a parent’s consent or a guardian in attendance.”

The instant he heard it, Ren let out a small but definite breath of relief.

Thank goodness… if word had gone to Father, he might have refused…

Ren’s face relaxed before he could help it, and Eugene watched him with a quiet, deep look, as though he had grasped the whole of it. Perhaps he had seen through to the complications of Ren’s home, and the fact that there was no leaning on his family.

“You needn’t decide about the provisional contract today.”

Eugene’s words surprised Ren a little.

He had thought this sort of thing was settled on the spot.

“Take time to think. Talk it over with someone, if you need to.”

Ren blinked.

I feel like I could decide now… but is that how it’s done?

The word “contract” had struck him as something harder than this, something there was no getting out of.

But Eugene’s manner was otherwise.

In point of fact it was a consideration on the guild’s part, and on Eugene’s. Rule or no rule, the other party was a child of nine. To sew up a contract on the spot risked a claim later on — that he had been frightened into signing, that he had been cheated — and a great deal of trouble with it. Precisely because he wanted the contract to hold, Eugene deliberately stood back and dealt with the boy honestly, as an equal business partner. It was his own brand of risk management, and of kindness.

“That reminds me, Ren. Did you bring the things I asked for?”

Mikaila, the deputy guild master, who had been sitting in, spoke up, her tight-packed muscles shifting as she moved. Ren said “Ah,” remembering, and took two bundles of wooden boards out of his bag.

“…I’ve brought the two sets of ‘letter boards’ the guild master asked for.”

“Oh? Might I have a look?”

Eugene showed interest as well, so Ren laid the finished letter boards out on the table.

With the cloth off, bundles of boards appeared, each of a size to sit in Ren’s palm.

The ends were squared off exactly, the corners pared smooth. Holes had been bored and each set bound together with cord.

On the face of them, letters had been written clear and sharp with a char-core quill pen.

Eugene’s eyes narrowed a little. He took one up.

He weighed it in his hand and traced the writing with a finger.

“Well, well — this is very well done indeed. The lettering is… charcoal, I see. Rub it hard and it would thin or smudge, I imagine, but these are for trying out, aren’t they. In that case it’s more than enough. Go in for an elaborate paint and you add nothing but labour and expense.”

Eugene nodded, impressed. It seemed to be approval.

After that the talk in the reception room came to a quick end.

The details of the provisional contract were left standing for now. The letter boards were to be passed to the guild master, and Eugene gave a light nod and left his seat.

Coming out of the reception room, Ren spotted Victor and the others in front of the dining hall.

“Oi! Ren! Just having lunch now? We’ve eaten already.”

Ren waved and went over to them.

“Loren and Fred have got most of the numbers and the letters down.”

“Heh, how about that! Boards with one letter on them aren’t enough for me any more!”

Loren said it with a snort, half joking.

Ren laughed under his breath and drew a new bundle of boards from his bag.

“Then how about these?”

“Eh, what are these?”

“Not just single letters — I made letter boards with things like ‘magical beast’ and ‘medicinal herb’ and ‘horn rabbit’ written on them.”

“Whoa, brilliant! That’s harder!”

“Right, after lunch we’re going to the training ground and having a match with these!”

The Young Branch Squad’s eyes lit up, and off they ran to the training ground as soon as noon was past.

Ren watched them go and let out a small breath.

After eating his lunch in the dining hall, he went to look in on the training ground, and found Victor and the others charging about at the letter-board game with grown adventurers.

Rough, hard-faced grown adventurers running about with letter boards in their hands, somehow enjoying themselves. They seemed to be competing party against party with the Young Branch Squad.

…The letter boards are being used by other adventurers too.

The fact of it gave him an odd feeling.

In the afternoon, Ren went out to the hunting hut for the first time in a while.

He pushed through the grass and stood before the stone magic tool in front of the hut.

Ren crouched down, opened the stone lid and looked inside.

He sketched what was inside the magic tool onto a board.

If only I could repair it…

Rustle.

Even while he sketched he caught the presence of magical beasts now and then. Outside the hut was a little too dangerous for a careful examination of the magic tool, Ren thought. So he would copy down what was inside it and think it over properly later.

He checked over the inside of the hut too, found nothing changed, chanted “Floor Refresh” until he was satisfied, and left.

On the way home he brought down one bird-type magical beast. Light, and good quality. And the feathers were a graded purple.

I could make a smart-looking quill pen out of these.

A small haul.

Evening. Back on the baronial grounds, it was noisier than usual.

Unfamiliar servants were going in and out of the annexe. Carrying in baggage, spreading cloth, checking over the decorations.

Preparations for the celebration, I suppose.

That was the conclusion Ren came to. Servants his grandmother had brought with her, most likely.

The air inside the house was a little different too.

Voices crossed one another at the far end of the corridor.

He made for his own room at a quick pace.

And stopped in front of the door.

Ren looked at the entrance to his room warily.

The door was open.