Ch 114 -- Venom Tarantula Subjugation Reward and Doran"s Guild Master

We went to the Adventurers Guild early next morning to collect the Venom Tarantula subjugation fee among other things. When I showed my Guild card at the reception, the receptionist offered me a seat, saying "Please wait a moment as I call the Guild Master."

Rodolpho-san appeared shortly after. "Oh, you"re bright and early. Let"s go to the warehouse." He led the way to the Guild"s warehouse where the young man with the damaged leg who was currently the chief dismantler for the Guild was waiting for us.

"That"s well timed, I"ve just finished your order." he said with a tired smile. A large number of Venom Tarantula legs were piled up on the work table, a somewhat disgusting and gruesome sight.

"Right then, we"ll take the Venom Tarantula legs as agreed." I put the Venom Tarantula legs in my Item Box, trying hard not to look too closely at the horrible things.

"To business then," said Rodolpho-san, "Here"s the breakdown of what you"re owed, beginning with the subjugation request. Because the Bruno Company was desperate the reward for this request is 320 gold coins. They"re buying all eight thread sacs as I expected they would and there"s eight Venom Tarantula poison sacs too, 440 gold coins for that lot plus the Giant Centipede"s sh.e.l.l and its manastone which comes to 230 gold coins for a grand total of 990 gold coins." He grunted as he lifted three heavy bags of gold coins onto the table in front of me, thud, thud, thud. "Yosh, there they are."

The sight of all that money no longer surprised me which was somehow disappointing. It still didn"t stop me storing the bags full of gold coins safely in my Item Box.

"So what are you going to do after this?" Rodolpho-san inquired.

"I think we will head to Doran now we"ve completed the request for you here." I answered.

"Oh? Well, I"m sorry. I wish you were going to stay around for a bit longer." Rodolpho-san"s face registered his disappointment. If it had been up to me, Rodolpho-san I"d have preferred to stay here a bit longer too but the others all wanted to go dungeoneering in Doran. I personally wanted to spend as little time as possible in a Dungeon City, but...

"Fer and the others are all looking forward to Doran and its dungeon so they said we should set off as soon as possible."

"A Fenrir, an absurdly strong Slime and a Pixie Dragon?" Rodolpho-san pulled at his beard in thought. "You"ve got an impressive party to support you, no doubt about it even if they are first-timers."

No no no, that"s not it. It"s not me that wants to go to the dungeon, you see but... ah, no point trying to explain.

"Oh yeah, there"s something I should tell ya, well warn you about." Rodolpho-san"s voice dropped and he leaned in conspiratorially. "You remember how I mentioned an old colleague of mine earlier?"

"Oh, the one who knew everything about Dragons, you mean?" Rodolpho-san had mentioned him when he had first encountered Dora-chan, a Dragon Slayer who had been obsessed with discovering everything there was to know about Dragons. They had even found an ill.u.s.trated book about Dragons in the National Library in the capital, with a picture of a Pixie Dragon.

"That"s him. Ah, that guy, he"s now Doran"s Guild Master, y"see." Rodolpho-san seemed, well, embarra.s.sed to be telling me this which was both worrying and confusing. So he and this guy, his old friend the Dragon Slayer had been in a party as Adventurers. They had both been promoted to Guild Master of different towns after they retired so it must have been a high-ranking party. But why the reticence?

"That"s why, ummm..." Hmm? Rodolpho-san, normally forthright and open was hesitating. "As I said, he"s someone who was obsessed about Dragons, and he still is from what I"ve heard, still hunting down any sc.r.a.p of information about them, interrogating any travellers who pa.s.s by. And you..." I realised Rodolpho-san was looking at Dora-chan.

Oh, I see. If the Guild Master of Doran is the sort who"s obsessed about Dragons to that extent and then I turn up with Dora-chan in tow...

"You think he"ll be excited to see this Pixie Dragon?"

"Well... saying he"ll JUST be excited to see this Pixie Dragon..." Rodolpho-san pursed his lips. "Word of advice, sonny. Be careful, OK? He"s not a bad guy, you know, just..." he rocked his head back and forth, choosing his next words carefully. "Single-minded. That"s it, single-minded, he goes a bit over the top when it comes to Dragons. You might want to remember that when you meet up with him. He"s not really crazy, he"s just... enthusiastic. OK?"

You seem to have had some bad experiences with your friend, Rodolpho-san. Is he really that troublesome? Yet you called him a friend. So... He"s Doran"s Guild Master so I can"t ignore him or hide away from him, that would be impolite and impractical too. I don"t understand his obsession with Dragons myself but I"ll do what I can to intermediate since I"m the only one that can talk to Dora-chan. It would still be a good idea for me not to spend too much time at the Adventurer"s Guild in Doran, I decided, just the minimum necessary to carry out any requests and deal with any disa.s.sembly I needed to get done.

"I"d like to say that he won"t cause you any bother but..." Rodolpho-san conceded. "I apologise on his behalf in advance for his behaviour." That wasn"t helping my peace of mind, Rodolpho-san. We were committed to going to Doran anyway though, and, I suddenly remembered, since the Guild Master in Carerina thought the Doran Guild"s dismantlers could disa.s.semble the Earth Dragon I had in my Item Box he had already been in touch with Doran"s Guild Master, so Rodolpho-san"s old friend the Dragon Slayer would know I was coming and I"d have that Dragon with me, never mind Dora-chan, a very much alive Pixie Dragon. My heart sank.

It seemed pretty certain that Doran"s Guild Master (who I was beginning to dread encountering) was already waiting impatiently to meet with me.