The Kicked Out S-Rank Appraiser Creates The Strongest Guild - Chapter 39 & 40

Chapter 39   Jill’s Rebellion

Jill was in the lobby of the Golden Hawk, feeling as if she were sitting on pins and needles.

It seemed that everyone already knew she had fallen out of favor with Lucius.

People looked at her with curious eyes every time they passed by.

Enduring the gazes around her, she closed her eyes and tried to compose herself.

Suddenly, the sound of footsteps was followed by Deanna’s cold voice.

“Jill. The Guildmaster is calling for you. Come to his room.”

Jill opened her eyes and stared at Deanna.

“Do you understand why you’ve been summoned here, Jill?”

“Well, I have no idea.”

“I see. Then, let me enlighten you.”

“Yes.”

Deanna presented undeniable evidence that Jill had attended the ‘Guardian of the Magic Tree’ seminar, visited the ‘Spirit’s Workshop,’ and received instruction from Laurent.

“If you still have complaints, I have witnesses. Shall I call them?”

Daenna dangled the bell used to summon Zens, who was waiting nearby.

“What is the meaning of this? Numerous acts of aiding the enemy. Even for you, this cannot be overlooked.”

“What do you mean? That’s what I’d like to ask you.”

“What?”

“While you sit in such a grand seat, can you see nothing? The ‘Golden Hawk’ has completely changed. The guild that once held the highest prestige in the city has lost its glory. The members have forgotten their bravery and are more focused on undermining each other for self-preservation than exploring dungeons. At a time when we are being overpowered by the ‘Guardians of the Magic Tree’ and the foundation of the guild is crumbling, there isn’t a single person willing to sacrifice themselves to turn the situation around! This is all your responsibility! You, who have made decisions based on personal preferences rather than merit, who have favored flattery over honest advice! The decline of the ‘Golden Hawk’ is your fault!”

Jill’s words were a direct indictment of Lucius.

“I can no longer remain silent while the guild deteriorates because of you!”

“You…!”

“In any case, I will no longer follow your orders. I came here today to tell you that. Goodbye.”

Deanna was flustered.

“Stop it, Jill. Do you understand what you’re saying?”

“I don’t mind if you punish me. Do as you please. Excuse me.”

Jill turned on her heel and began to leave the room.

“Wait. Where are you going?”

“To Laurent. I need to undergo training.”

Leaving these words behind, Jill briskly exited Lucius’s room.

Lucius was furious, but Jill’s words quickly spread throughout the guild, and many agreed with her.

“That’s right! Jill is correct!”

“Lucius should take responsibility!”

A faction called the ‘Jill Faction’ was soon formed within the guild. Those who harbored discontent towards Lucius seized this opportunity to gather, occupying a room within the guild’s building to demonstrate their opposition to Lucius.

* * *

Chapter 40   Ramon’s Sunset

“Damn that woman! She’s become arrogant because we’ve been too lenient with her.”

Lucius raised his voice, openly displaying his anger.

“Tell Jill! If she doesn’t change her attitude immediately, she’ll be expelled from the guild for breach of contract, fined, and stripped of her adventurer qualifications, effectively barring her from operating in this city!”

“Wait. Don’t do it, Lucius.”

Deanna hastily intervened.

“It’s not wise to take a hardline approach with her right now.”

“What do you mean?”

“Have you forgotten about Savast? What if she flees the city? Losing Jill now would be a huge blow.”

“Grr…”

Jill was the primary reason investors were pouring money into the ‘Golden Hawk.’ If she became an S-class adventurer, they could sell her to any other guild for any price and attract new investments from outside the city.

Lucius had made Jill his right hand and the guild’s poster girl for this very reason.

“We need to placate her for now.”

“But doing so could undermine the organization’s cohesion…”

“We have no choice. The guild is already in turmoil due to various issues. If we lose another capable adventurer after Savast, we won’t recover.”

“…”

“Just bear with it for now. Have you arranged to poach the A-class adventurer from the ‘Guardians of the Magic Tree’?”

“Yes, that’s right.”

“Then we’ll be fine. Once we crush the ‘Guardians of the Magic Tree,’ the ‘Golden Hawk’ will be the only major adventurer guild in the city. No adventurer will dare defy us.”

“…I suppose we have no choice. We’ll seek a way to placate Jill.”

* * *

“Jill, over here. Hurry!”

“Okay, I’m coming. Don’t rush me so much.”

Charl pulled Jill by the arm and led her to a room in the ‘Spirit’s Workshop.’

Jill was visiting the ‘Spirit’s Workshop’ to receive instruction from Laurent.

Unfortunately, Laurent had gone over to the ‘Guardians of the Magic Tree,’ so Jill was waiting when Charl caught her.

“Jill, look at this. This is the new material that Daevin and I developed.”

“Oh, this is it…”

Jill took the new material Charl was showing her and examined it.

“Hmm, it is indeed heavy.”

Despite saying this, Jill lifted the new material with one hand.

“Right? But it’s incredibly hard!”

“Indeed. With this, you could make some pretty powerful equipment.”

“That’s right. But the development costs are very high…”

“Oh? How much?”

“…Around 20 million gold.”

Charl spoke hesitantly.

“I see. That is quite expensive.”

“Jill!”

Charl clung to Jill’s leg.

“Please, buy this material. If you don’t, Jill, it’ll just end up being shelved.”

“Well, even if you say that…”

“Come on. Please. Buy it, buy it, buy it, buy it, please!”

“Ah, haha. This is a bit awkward.”

“Hey, what are you whining about?”

Ranju entered the room, frowning.

“Ugh. Ranju.”

“Charl, you still haven’t given up on that new material, huh?”

“But…”

“It was already decided that it wouldn’t be profitable. Stop troubling Jill. Get back to work. You still have a blueprint to finish and a piece of silverwork to make today, right?”

“Uh, okay.”

Charl left the room, looking dejected.

“I’m sorry for the trouble, Jill.”

“No, it’s fine. I had time to kill anyway while waiting for Laurent. It was educational.”

As the two of them chatted, they heard a commotion outside and the loud neighing of horses.

“What is that?”

Jill looked puzzled.

Ranju also frowned.

“A carriage? That’s strange. There shouldn’t be any visits from nobles or wealthy patrons today.”

While they were talking, armed men barged into the store.

“What do you guys want? Are you from the ‘Golden Hawk’?”

Ranju asked, noticing the emblem on their uniforms.

The men immediately approached Jill as soon as they saw her.

“Jill Irwin, right? You need to come with us.”

“And if I refuse?”

Jill glared sharply, causing the men to hesitate and exchange uneasy glances.

“So, you were here, Jill.”

From behind the men, Deanna smoothly stepped forward.

“Deanna… What is the meaning of this?”

“Jill, this is a summons from the Guildmaster. Please come with us.”

“The Guildmaster? What does he want with me?”

“The Guildmaster wants to present you with a compromise.”

“A compromise?”

“Yes. If you can’t accept it, it will truly mean expulsion and disciplinary action from the guild. You understand what that means, don’t you?”

“…”

“Come with us to see Lucius, won’t you, Jill?”

“Ah, you’re here.”

Lucius greeted Jill with a cheerful smile, a stark contrast to his previous demeanor.

“So, you had some business with me?”

Jill maintained a distant and formal tone.

“Come now, don’t be so tense. Jill, you should be happy. It’s a promotion.”

“A promotion?”

“Yes, you’ve been appointed as a squad leader.”

“That’s great, Jill. Your salary will increase too.”

Jill silently looked at the two of them.

They both smiled, looking quite pleased with themselves, thinking they had completely won Jill over.

(Sigh. These two just don’t get it. That’s not what I’m after.)

Jill looked at Lucius with a pitying gaze.

(Lucius, in the end, you never understood what I really wanted.)

“I understand. I will humbly accept the appointment.”

“Oh, you’ll do it?”

Lucius leaned forward.

“Well said, Jill.”

Deanna chimed in, matching Lucius’s tone.

“But!”

Jill raised her hand in front of them to stop them from leaning in any further.

“There are conditions.”

“Conditions?”

“Yes. First, you must assign the alchemist Daevin to my squad.”

“Is that all? That’s an easy request.”

“Additionally, I want 20 million gold allocated as a special budget.”

“20 million gold…”

Lucius made a bitter face.

Having lost two dungeons, the ‘Golden Hawk’ guild was still facing severe financial difficulties.

“If it’s impossible, that’s fine. Let’s forget about this conversation.”

“Wait. Fine, we’ll arrange the 20 million gold. But in return, you must disband the group calling themselves the ‘Jill Faction’ and put an end to their unrest.”

“Understood. I will do my utmost to disband them.”

Thus, Jill became a squad leader and declared the resolution of her conflict with Lucius.

As a result, those in the ‘Jill Faction’ who had been plotting to overthrow Lucius were disappointed, seeing Jill as having sided with Lucius. The momentum to dethrone Lucius rapidly dwindled.

Jill used the 20 million gold she obtained to order new weapons from the ‘Spirit’s Workshop.’

* * *

(This is bad. At this rate… A new dungeon will soon appear.)

While Lucius was busy dealing with Jill, Ramon was also feeling anxious.

His relationship with Laurent remained cold.

The plan to sell Monica and the others to the ‘Golden Hawk’ to raise funds showed no signs of improving his relationship with Laurent.

(Now is the time when Monica and the others can fetch a high price. There’s no guarantee they will still have the same value next month.)

Reluctantly, Ramon decided to convene an ’emergency executive meeting.’

The ’emergency executive meeting’ was attended only by key members of the ‘Guardians of the Magic Tree.’

Guild members had to adhere to the decisions made in this meeting, with no exceptions allowed.

At the meeting, Ramon emphasized the need for unity and spoke passionately.

“Now is not the time for internal strife within the guild for the sake of its future! We must all cooperate immediately to raise funds.”

Ramon sought cooperation from Laurent and Lilianne.

However, Laurent and Lilianne refused.

Moreover, they demanded Ramon’s resignation.

“The guild’s financial downfall has been due to the Guildmaster’s repeated failures. I hereby declare a vote of no confidence against Ramon.”

With Lilianne’s declaration, a vote of no confidence was conducted on the spot.

The requirements for passing a no-confidence vote against the Guildmaster were that two-thirds of the executive members must be present, and three-quarters of those present must agree.

The result was a unanimous decision for Ramon’s dismissal.

Though some of the participants were initially aligned with Ramon, they saw the dominance of the Lilianne-Laurent faction and switched sides at the last moment.

Once a highly contributing A-class adventurer in the ‘Guardians of the Magic Tree,’ Ramon failed to shine as Guildmaster and was ultimately forced out of the guild.

Lilianne was appointed as the new Guildmaster.

Despite having a new leader, the ‘Guardians of the Magic Tree’ faced immediate challenges under Lilianne’s leadership.

“We don’t have enough money?”

“Yes, that’s correct.”

Laurent and Lilianne were having a conversation in a private room.

After Lilianne became the Guildmaster, their relationship remained unchanged, and Lilianne began consulting Laurent even more frequently than before.

“It seems that Ramon’s struggles with cash flow were genuine.”

“Is that so?”

Laurent, who had thought the financial difficulty was just an excuse to sell Monica and the others, was somewhat surprised.

“We are short about 10 million gold for this month’s payments.”

“It’s strange, isn’t it? We have captured two dungeons.”

“The revenue from dungeon operations takes some time to flow into the guild.”

“Can’t we get a loan from banks or investors?”

“I’ve approached several banks, but they seem to consider the adventuring business in this city a saturated market.”

“I see…”

In this town, only about three dungeons appeared each month.

Despite this, there was a proliferation of A-class adventurers, increasing the number of squads capable of dungeon conquest, and intensifying competition in dungeon exploration.

If this trend continues, the cost of organizing squads will increase, while the actual income for a single guild will only decrease.

(Indeed, from the perspective of investors, there may not be much merit in investing further.)

“So, Laurent-san, I have something to discuss. Could you become an investor from ‘Arsenal of the spirits’?”

“Become an investor from ‘Arsenal of the spirits’… you say?”

“Yes. Is there any way you could consider it?”

“Of course, I would love to help the ‘Guardians of the Magic Tree,’ but… investing 10 million gold… Hmm, I wonder if I could manage it.”

Laurent recalled the financial records of the ‘Arsenal of the spirits’ and pondered whether he could raise that amount of funds.

He felt like he might just fall short, but he needed to confirm with Ranju for more details.

“I have an idea.”

“An idea?”

“Yes. First, the ‘Arsenal of the spirits’ will seek investment from a bank. Then, the ‘Arsenal of the spirits’ will invest in the ‘Guardians of the Magic Tree.'”

“I see. So the ‘Arsenal of the spirits’ acts as an intermediary between the bank and the ‘Guardians of the Magic Tree’.”

“Yes. The ‘Arsenal of the spirits’ is currently experiencing growth in the silverwork business, so I believe the bank would be willing to invest as well.”

“I see. That might indeed be worth a try.”

After a moment of contemplation, Laurent turned to Lilianne.

“Understood. Let’s give it a try.”

“Thank you very much.”

When Laurent went to the bank and applied for the loan as described above, surprisingly, the bank representative nodded readily.

“It’s no problem.”

“Really?”

“Yes. ‘Arsenal of the Spirits’ is currently one of the most promising guilds in the city.”

(If it’s ’Arsenal of the Spirits,’ it has the endorsement of Count Elson. Even if the management falters, it won’t be abandoned.)

In the end, ‘Arsenal of the Spirits’ received a capital investment of 100 million gold from the bank.

Laurent became a shareholder of ‘Guardian of the Magic Tree’ and was appointed as an executive.

Liliannne obtained the cash cow called ‘Arsenal of the Spirits.’

With the ability to draw in resources such as funds, Liliannne gained absolute power within ‘Guardian of the Magic Tree.’

Everyone in every department had to consult her and flatter her to get their budgets approved.

Thus, ‘Guardian of the Magic Tree,’ with overwhelming superiority over ‘Golden Hawk’ in every aspect from dungeon management to reinforcement of new forces, status adjustments, troop organization, items and equipment, and fundraising, welcomed the emergence of a new dungeon.