“The supreme elder? Fufufu… you must not be aware of the current situation of the Golden Lion guild.”

“I’m not?”

“No, the supreme elder doesn’t have much power within the guild anymore, he has gotten old and weak, creating a power vacuum. The arranged marriage was just another attempt of his to reunite the guild. The supreme elder wanted to have a peaceful passing of the torch instead of a battle between the chief-executives…”

“But he’s still the supreme elder, right? Even if he isn’t as strong anymore, wouldn’t he still be pissed that I ruined his plans?”

“Well, even if he was, he can’t do anything about it. Harold is already more powerful than him, the same goes for James, Kaori’s dad. He himself probably also realized the arranged marriage wouldn’t work out. It was just a last-ditch effort of a dying man trying to save his guild...”

“That’s… Kind of sad…”

“Well, with the future strongest Machia as his son-in-law, Harold will naturally become the next successor. Maybe a fight can be avoided after all~”

I laugh awkwardly:

“Please ma’am, that’s a lot of pressure for someone who hasn’t even graduated yet…”

“Fufufu… Well, if you manage to impress Harold, the Sunbringer family will definitely support your journey.”

“Thanks a lot for the gesture, however, I’m not planning on leeching off of the family of my girlfriend.”

“Hmm, quite prideful I see… Ah, to be young again… Well, my offer still stands. Also, a bit of advice dear, don’t let your arrogance lead to choices you’ll regret later on.”

Arrogance? Me?!

But before I could ask any follow-up questions she already left the room.

Sara turns to me:

“Don’t mind her, she always tries to play the cryptic, wise old lady. Anyways, now that we have my mother’s blessing, I can finally join your little guild!”

Should I really just brush off Nancy’s advice? I don’t know… But I do know Sara just said something I can’t simply ignore.

“Oi, you can’t just call it a ‘little guild’… Well, to be fair, I guess it is quite small right now… but we’ll definitely achieve great things!”

“Duh! Of course, you will! I’ll be joining you guys after all.”

She smugly proclaims.

“Heh, we’ll see about that. I’m not the only founding member, the others also have to agree first, we don’t just accept anyone.”

“Then what are we waiting for, let’s go ask them!”

…

--- At 20.05 In the kitchen/living room of Reo’s dorm all guild members are currently gathered to discuss the future of the guild and the acceptance of a new member ---

“YES!”

“Of course this beauty can join.”

“Fine…”

“W-Wait guys, that quickly? Don’t you first need to ask her some questions or something? Fudo?!”

“Hmm… You’re right… When will you be officially joining? And, are you single?”

“OI! Lance, go talk some sense into everyone please. We can’t just accept anyone as a founding member of our guild!”

“In that case, do you want her to join us Reo?”

“W-Well yes, she would be a useful member to have in our guild I guess… But that’s not the point-“

“Then that’s enough reason for me to agree, plus, she’s a pretty girl… But if you insist on asking her questions: Are you perhaps free tomorrow?”

These guys are hopeless… I wanted to make things at least a bit difficult for Sara since she didn’t want to join my guild in the beginning, but these guys are only thinking with their dick… Juniper is my only hope left.

“J-Juniper?”

“Hmm… While I would rather keep you to myself, I realize she could be a valuable asset to our guild, with her family’s wealth and such… Plus, with this, I can keep an eye on her.”

Sara jumps up in celebration and glomps onto me:

“Yay! Now I’m officially part of Reo’s guild!”

This earns the glare of Juniper, but to my surprise, not those of Fudo and Lance.

Fudo and Lance simply stand up with emotionless expressions and dead-looking eyes. Fudo exclaims a quiet: “Ah… I see…” before walking away, while Lance follows behind him with a soft: “I… I should have known…”.

This leaves the girls utterly confused and me with a sense of guilt.

I turn to both girls:

“We… We should let them rest for today, they suffered a lot of… Emotional damage. Let’s call another meeting here tomorrow, I still need to discuss the future of our guild.”

I wanted to discuss our main problem right now: Money… Our guild doesn’t have any funds yet, and we’ll definitely need some in the future. We could borrow, but I don’t think we can build a stable guild on top of debt… I wanted to hear Lance’s ideas, he always seemed to have some when it came to making money.

After eating dinner with the girls I headed back to my own room, I could fool around with one of them if I wanted to, but honestly, I was just way too tired after that entire ordeal with the assassin and Sara’s dad.

Unfortunately for me, Juniper had other ideas, sneaking into my bed during the dead of night entirely naked… Oh god, this is going to be a long night…