Leander felt like a small child on the grown-up's table. He was sitting behind Alklair's desk, no, his desk now. The healer had let the light mage collect his things and go out through the front door.

He had even made the adventurers line up to send the elf off. Because Alklair had been a guild master for half a thousand years, give or take a few, and in that time, the guild had gotten third in the world ranking.

Alklair had walked with a big smile, a bounce to his step, and head held high. Like a weight has been lifted off his shoulders. That weight was now on Leander's meaty shoulders, and he felt it more pressing than his normal fat deposits.

Someone knocked on the door, and Leander's eyes snapped away from the spot on the wall he had been gazing at for the past fifteen minutes.

"Come in," Leander wished he could guess who was in front of the door, similar to how Alklair could. But his mana sensing was not to that level yet.

Baleg and Valerie came inside the office, looking grim.

"I am glad you came. I... have no idea how to do this," Leander admitted, and he made a wide motion with his arms to show off the office.

"We came to ask if we are to pack and leave, like guild master Alklair," Valerie spoke, her voice accusing.

"What? No! You can't leave. The guild will be run into the ground without the two of you," and it just might be run into the ground with them, too. Leander was not sure of his abilities to keep the guild in the third position of the world, much less if he could rank it up.

"We have demands, then," Baleg's tone was stern, and Leander sat straighter in his chair. It was a nice chair, but plain. It was made of a plain wood and was just enough comfortable for someone to do their job, but not for them to sit in it for hours.

Alklair had not wanted to be comfortable in his position, and neither did Leander. He wanted to be a lean wolf with a hungry look, even if he had to spend the next couple of years walking in place every day. And the rest of his life afterwards.

"I am willing to listen and make compromises," Leander assured them. Losing those two would be a tough blow to the guild. They were the most experienced in ruling, aside from Alklair.

"You will enforce the one week per month training rule that was just a suggestion under guild master Alklair," Baleg growled, and Leander took out a notebook and wrote down the first demand he agreed with.

"Ok, but there won't be any more quotas going forward. They made adventurers risk their hides without a need. The payment will be all the motivation one would need," Leander made his offer, and he pressed his pencil to the notebook to write it down.

"You'd be surprised at how lazy the average party is," Valerie countered. Leander raised his head to look at her.

"Please elaborate," Valerie smiled at being listened to, and spoke.

"Every adventurer needs a stick and a carrot. The stick is the quota, the carrot the fame and the payment. You can't expect that they would work for the carrot alone. Full belies don't plow fields," Leander blinked. He had not heard that one.

"Did Asmodeos say that?" Leander asked. He needed to bring about some changes. Or else, he would have a mutiny on his hands. He was not Alklair, who Leander had defeated only because the man had created enough light golems to run out of mana, an honor duel with more than half the guild was something he wouldn't be able to handle.

"Alklair did," Valerie smiled down on Leander. "You know, just because he was not labelled a philosopher like his partner, it doesn't mean he doesn't have his grains of wisdom."

"I don't doubt that," Leander sighed. "Maybe we can lower the quotas? Two hundred quest quotas for the S ranked parties is pure exploitation."

"Why do you think they are S ranked?" Baleg asked, brows furrowed.

"Because their lowest ranked member is an S rank?" Leander did not know why he was asked such a simple thing.

"Because they are strong, boy. The strongest 1% in the guild. Most quests in need of doing don't want you to face off against goblins. They pit the parties against calamities. If you let your top earners become slackers, the quests that pay for the upkeep of the guild will go to some other guild. And our overall rank will go down," Leander had not considered that. He had thought that all the quests were equal.

"Doesn't the guild take a percentage from all the quests?" Leander looked between Baleg and Valerie. They looked uneasy at that.

"Now, if you tell the others what we are about to tell you, the guild might end up disbanded. But this is the basic business model for all guilds. We did not apply it to be greedy," Leander did not like Valerie's words. What was she implying?

"Do go on, I'll keep mum," Leander promised, and she smiled nervously.

"This is not even written in the contracts, but it is hinted at there. Do you remember that clause that a bigger percentage will be taken from the pay with every rank up? And that, the percentage starts with 1% from rank F forward?" Leander nodded, growing pale.

"Up to rank A, the percentage raises by just 1. S and forward is 20% for S, 25% for SS and 30% for SSS. Most of our money come from the S ranked party. Granted, we haven't had an SSS since Asmodeos, but you get the picture," Leander gaped openly.

"Flying pigs on a turtle," Leander cursed. They were robbing the S ranked parties. Well, that ended now.

"I will increase the quest quotas, but lower the pay percentage. And I will come clean with that. This is a daylight robbery. The guild can do away with such dishonesty," Baleg and Valerie shared a look. Well, there went their pension plans. And the pension plans of the entire guild.