“We seriously need to celebrate this!” Herculia exclaimed as he lifted his hands filled with gold coins in the air. “We can buy whatever we want!!”
“Not yet, Herculia.” Isla replied. “We still need to finish construction first. We don’t have any more time to waste.”
Isla’s biggest fear at that moment was to leg out when the building was still less than 50% finished. Their progress was extremely fast but it could be very much not enough to finish before they had to go back to the real world.
‘We can’t leave the kids alone anymore in such an open area. If we can at least finish setting up the traps and the protection measures…’ She tightened her fist as she looked around her. The building was taking form and they weren’t that far away from her minimum goal. There was a big chance they could finish before the deadline.
“… Right, we can’t celebrate now.” Herculia sighed.
“Don’t worry, big guy. We will be able to celebrate when we finish this building.” He said.
“How is the progress so far, Serko?” Danny asked the small dwarf carrying the drawn plan in his hands.
“Mm, it is pretty good. We have finished a good chunk of the trickiest parts. Things should pick up even more pace from now on.”
“Good to hear that.”
“Well, what are we waiting for? We need to resume work.” Emmy said as she clapped her hands.
“Before that,” Arthur said. “We need to do something important.”
Shifting his gaze, Arthur looked at the group of prisoners. They were also still busy working as the two dwarves had ordered them to continue the plan. Since there were many of them, they were able to rotate and keep the work going with no hindrance.
“Hey, can you all stop working for a second!” He yelled.
“Hm?”
“Sir?”
“Do you need something?”
The prisoners looked at Arthur weirdly. They were so focused on their task that they didn’t even realize that he hadn’t come back yet.
“I have something for you.” He said.
“…”
Slowly, the prisoners stopped work and approached him slowly. They didn’t know what Arthur wanted from them. However, seeing the wide grin on his face, they had a feeling it was something surprising.
“Ehem, thank you all for being here. The plan to take down the Red Pearl is going great and we have received a good amount of money.” He said. “So, just to make sure that everyone here won’t struggle in the future, you all will get 10 gold coins each.”
“…”
Silence.
Nobody spoke for a good ten seconds as they stared at Arthur with frozen expressions.
“… 10 what?”
“10 gold coins,” Arthur repeated.
“…. WHAT?!”
Then, it dawned on them and the reaction was wild. Gasps of shock spread across the masses as their eyes visibly widened.
“Did I hear him right?”
“Yeah… Gold coins… We’re getting gold coins!”
“I have never seen a gold coin in my life… Let alone ten of them.”
“I want to cry…”
In the Empire, a gold coin was a fortune for any average person. It was enough to keep them alive and well-fed for years. So, ten of them were enough to change someone’s life forever. Yet, Arthur was giving each one of them that fortune without hesitation. Their happiness was simply over the roof.
However, at that moment, Danny stepped forward with a frown on his face. He was intending to question Arthur’s impulsive decision. There were at least 100 people there and if given 10 gold coins each that was 1000 gold coins gone. It was simply a horrifying amount of money.
“Wait, Ar-“
Before he could even speak, he felt a hand grab his shoulder. Looking back, he saw Herculia staring back at him with a serious expression.
“What?”
“Don’t say anything. Arthur is doing the right thing here.”
“How is that the right thing? It’s 1000 coins for god’s sake.” Danny had no problem helping the group, he just didn’t think ten gold coins was the appropriate amount to give each one. Even 5 gold coins are still a lot.
“If we want these people to remain on our side, they need to survive. Don’t forget that they’re homeless and broke.” Emmy said.
“…”
“They’re going to prove valuable in the future. It’s an investment for the future.” Isla added. “Besides, we will still have 49 thousand coins. That is more than enough to run our operations for years without worrying about anything.”
“… Right…” Danny muttered as he shifted his gaze to Arthur. He felt a little bitter since he was the only one who thought that way and it appeared as if he was a bad person who didn’t want to help these people.
‘I wonder if he truly thought that far ahead or… Did he simply help them because he wanted to?’ Danny asked himself.
Something told him that he knew the answer to that question. But, a part of him simply didn’t want to know the answer. He felt as if knowing the answer would change his entire perspective on Arthur. Yet, even then, he was still his rival and he could not compliment his rival.
***
After that, Arthur gave every single prisoner ten gold coins as he promised. Their delight with this gift was unimaginable. Some even ended up crying from sheer happiness. Their lives had been completely changed and they were given another opportunity to restore what they lost.
All because of Arthur, the boy who descended on their lives like an angel from the sky and gave them endless blessings. Their love for him reached a whole new level. They didn’t see him as their benefactor anymore, he was their true hero and the person they would do everything to help no matter what.
But, all the boy requested from them was to help with the construction and to follow his instructions in the future in relation to the Red Pearl matter.
With that, the group resumed the work with even more vigor than ever. Their desire to help was now tenfold and so the progress somehow increased even more.
Hours slowly passed for the group as they worked hard. Slowly, the Guild headquarters rose to the sky. The outer design took shape with time, growing more and more mesmerizing. It was nothing like the buildings around them. The sense of fantasy embedded within the building gave it a charm like no other.
The design was the fruit of all of Finlay and Serko’s knowledge and talent, which were put into a single idea. To make a building befitting this group of players.
Then, a day quickly passed with the work continuing without any breaks. People rotated and worked in teams to make it more organized while others rested. Rooms started taking shape, with many different areas for many different purposes spread across the 7 floors of the building.
“…” Arthur approached one of the windows and looked outside at the world. ‘It’s almost done…’
The work progress had passed 50% a few hours ago and they were close to 70% done. In fact, at that moment, Isla decided to leave to buy all the furniture and items necessary for the group. Enjoy exclusive adventures from empire
The Player’s Guild was finally born.
A//N: Don’t forget to give the book some golden tickets for good luck! :3