90% of my gross income goes into buying all the land around the ravine in the city, and I don't know why. I first purchased the initial land because it was cheap, but what do I need all this land for?

I ask Free Chains, and he tells me he's planning on creating a 'guild city' within the heart of the capital. I would question the legality if it was anyone other than Free Chains. It wouldn't matter too much since once I'm king, I'd own everything anyway.

The credits aren't only going to buying the land but developing it, so It's more explainable. I guess this is what I get for offloading all this financial stuff on other people.

I tell him I want some liquid funds and to chill with the rampant land buying. Instead, he tells me that with our income and the prospective income of [Adaptable], tell Charlie what I want, and he'll set aside the money for it.

It's my money. I don't like being told what I can and can't do with my money. Unfortunately, as long as taxes exist, I should at least listen to my lawyer and finance guy.

I hemorrhage credits in the form of taxes. The only saving grace is that with a bit of maneuvering through my charity, I pay fewer taxes overall.

Cool.

I explicitly tell Free Chains that if I don't have money for something I need because it's in real estate and not in my wallet, I'll use his salary for the purchase instead. He once again assures me that it's better this way.

My [Court of Allegiance] skill would tell me if he was betraying me and is working with Charlie, who's money literate (and the skill would inform me if he was betraying me as well). I guess I'll trust them. Worst case scenario, I'll have to make a copious amount of money some other way.

I have a few things I can do, but I should wait for my new personnel to be hired first. It's not an excuse. I just don't want to do guild work.

Before I can decide on my next plan of action, something that doesn't involve paperwork, I get an urgent message from Free Chains to summon the court.

I use [Court of Allegiance], subconsciously kicking Dylan from the call before his visage fully manifested.

Free Chains, Val, Rain, Charlie, and Duchess appear around me in semi-translucent forms. Before the question of why I used an emergency meeting, a question I don't even know the answer to, could be uttered, Free Chains addresses the court.

"The FIB contacted us! It took them a while, but they did it! The head was and is preoccupied... at least that's their claim, so the Vice-Head of the entire government agency will have a closed-door meeting with us."

"Us meaning...?" Asks Rain, who is wearing a full hazmat suit.

Free Chains adjusts his tie and answers, "Myself, Ellis, and Charlie."

"Why me?"

"Well, Charles, you will be needed because of your expertise with finances. We need to get as much from them as possible, lest Ellis feels that reparations are inadequate and have to supply more drastic events."

"Charlie isn't short for Charles. It's short for Charlesin. I also have three middle names, two of which I was given at birth."

"...I should know your full legal name since I handle all the... Nevermind. A slip of my barbed tongue. We'll talk later, Charlesin, because you've been signing your paperwork with 'Charlie Greenback' and that's... So much work will need to be done."

"Hey, I used my stamp and initials for anything important to the guild I needed to sign, so don't worry too badly."

"Did you say 'barbed tongue'?" asks Val tentatively. Free Chains is a Theriamorph from the class Silvestris, meaning he's a brownish-orange orange cat person with short fur. He's the only non-human who works for me... if you don't count my tamed beast or Dylan.

He doesn't count on principle.

"Young Val, as a Silvestris, I have many cat-like qualities."

"How many nipples you got?" Val immediately asks.

"..."

"I asked him a similar question when we first met." My first words in this meeting, and it's about nipples. I am not complaining. I mean, I'm down to one nipple after that tyrant attacked me... oh yeah, it grew back. Nevermind.

"Did he answer?"

"Ehem, let's return to the important things and speak less about my body. Hehe, we don't need HR to get involved."

"I don't work for my brother's guild."

"...The meeting is tomorrow. The short time frame could be extended, but knowing Ellis, the suddenness of the meeting is probably preferred. Something along the lines of 'getting it over with'? I am adequately prepared and have been."

I give Free Chains a thumbs up.

"Oh, Ellis, I just noticed! Your arm is back!"

I give a thumbs up to Val and gesture that we should let Free Chains continue speaking. My cat lawyer takes a second to organize his thoughts and continues speaking.

"Earlier, I was informed about our great guild having twelve new fractures. But since we don't know the conditions inside until a preliminary report, we should treat them as if they don't exist. I bring this up because a decision about our compensation and demands needs to be discussed. We can probably get a few profitable fractures, among other things.

Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

"In addition, although I do not accuse anyone of stealing twelve fractures, any issues that might arise should be quelled. Asking for punishment for the party involved with the attempted murder and abduction via fracture is a must. Gathering a range of fractures from lower to higher levels, necessary data and equipment, etcetera. From this, our guild can become a fracture powerhouse."

I speak after Free Chains seems to finish his mini-speech. "What if they are belligerent or act ignorant? What happens if they try to waive compensation because I retaliated after they attacked me? I caused some problems for them, and the press tour didn't help. I want my compensation, but they might try to spin things."

"Over the months you were gone, I've been busy. If I use my [Lawspeaker] power and submit a special stack of paperwork I've been compiling, the largest case of the century will happen. There's enough to completely dismantle the entire FIB unless the president doesn't care about running for re-election and wants to risk indictment and possible impeachment."

"What do you have?"

"Evidence of corruption. There are perks of being a [Lawspeaker]. Everything I got was acquired legally but could be seen as an overreach of my power. Still, it was acquired legally. When Val submitted an official form after we felt something might have gone wrong... we discovered... an anomaly. With some bending and stretching of the rules, I managed to get some other... anomalies."

"Of the hazard branch?"

"Of the FIB entirely. Whatever legal loophole the [Lawspeaker] working for the FIB utilized to separate themselves from the hazard branch wasn't strong enough. Or at least I found something that completely negates that specific loophole. By the way, I submitted an official notice to your office, Guild Master. I want a raise."

"Okay." More money to take from his salary if he fucks with my investments.

"The corruption I discovered isn't technically enough to get what we want, but it'll open an investigation that will uncover so much more. An investigation big enough to warrant a [Lawspeaker] to be in charge. Obviously, not me, but we won't have to worry about the investigation going nowhere or the investigators being purposely ignorant."

"What exactly did you find?" I ask.

"I'll tell you one of them before discussing some other things. If the Exploration branch had some of their raid teams die due to negligence from the FIB rather than the team itself, The Exploration branch would often fake documents and claim that members of their branch were instead Hazard branch members and died in a hazard fracture. Documents would be altered post-mortem, and their families would be paid less."

"That's horrible," says Val.

"They don't do this to not pay the families of the deceased, but to keep their reputation shiny for recruiting purposes. Why join the FIB instead of a guild? It's 'safer.' Unless the person has a different life insurance policy, something hard to get in that line of work, the FIB has to pay them less to keep the story about them being hazard branch members. Getting more money than 'advertised' would be... concerning."

"Wouldn't the families know that's BS?"

"The FIB tells the grieving families, if they tell them they are dead and not missing - an entirely different issue - that they switched from the 'government' sector to an equivalent to the 'private' sector in search of more money and paid the price. And that it's not up to them to inform them of their death, but do so anyway because the FIB is a big family, and that doesn't change even when they 'switch' jobs."

"How often does this happen?"

"Roughly once a year or two? The entire squad has to be wiped for this to happen in the first place... However, I found something that implies that a single surviving member of a disaster was 'dealt with' so this fabrication could happen. But before anyone starts putting heads on spikes and such things, I have reason to believe and paperwork to indicate that this specific aspect of corruption is unknown to even the higher-ups... not that that frees them of any implication."

This meeting sucks. "What do I have to do in preparation?"

"We are getting you a new suit. That'll take the rest of the day before you do some interviews. You wanted a personal assistant after all, and our wonderful HR manager had a few already lined up, just in case."

"Uh-huh. That's a tad concerning."

"Ah, she's a professional. She even has her replacement lined up in case she dies in an accident or gets murdered."

"...Same suit place as last time?"

"I'll send the address to your driver."

Free Chains then asks to speak to each of my court members about various things and schedule in-person meetings. Something about specific logistics with the new potions and heavily implying to Val that she should join my guild after she graduates, and the whole "representatives of humanity aren't allowed to be poached or approached by guilds or government agencies" restriction is over.

Technically, she can join my guild right now if she is the one who initiates that conversation... and drops out from the institute. You can't be in a guild and registered at an Institute. Obviously, there are ways around that.

People graduating that year can be prospective applicants to guilds, meaning they already decided which guild they will work for after graduating and that guild accepted. Or they make their own damn guild, apparently.

I got fitted for an A-rank suit. Usually, suits of this caliber are equivalent to armor, but we waived this aspect for other utility functions.

Apparently, as soon as my guild was founded, Free Chains (and Charlie after he had access to my finances) put aside credits (my money) and ordered a suit for me. Something, something, "You have to look the part."

It was finished a month ago but still has to undergo a final 'stitching' to ensure the dimensions they sent in (from my last suit fitting) were correct.

Stat-wise, it's okay. It's made from the same thing my last suit was made of.

[Universal Tailored Suit, Fit For Any Occasion A

This is a custom-tailored suit that fits the wearer. It's made with quality [SilkWyrm] silk.

-The wearer it was fitted for only needs a single thought to don (or doff) this suit in an instance, although not wearing clothing beforehand is recommended.

-The suit is virtually immune to stains, wrinkles, and mundane deterioration and will slowly repair itself if damaged.

-The suit can change colors and patterns to match the wearer's needs.

-If aspects of the suit are separated from each other, the wearer it was fitted for needs only a thought to reunite the separated pieces.

Charisma: +50]

If I didn't get all these utility features, it would've gotten me +100 charisma and a decent chunk of defense and still be durable in its own right.

This suit costs tens of millions and is ironically cheaper than the defensive option. The suit includes the pants, shoes, and tie and apparently has an A-rank mana crystal dissolved in the fabric before it was crafted.

Charlie managed to get it at a discount because he signed an agreement that we would get all our suits for our guild here. He may or may not have signed that agreement not using his "fake" name... but I recall signing something regarding 'guild suit supplier' at some point, so it probably doesn't matter.

As a guild master, representative of humanity, future king, and real estate tycoon, I can't be seen walking around in a D-rank suit.

Unless I want pity points.