After eating breakfast outside, we returned to her shop to drink tea in the break room. We are now planning our day.

"You said you wanted to learn the basics of alchemy from me before, right?"

"Yes, that would be nice if possible."

"I'm fine with teaching you, but most of it is practice and memorization, so there isn't really too much I can show you..."

"I think it would already help me if you could guide me through some easy recipes and show me how you work."

If I have the skill and know a little about how to proceed, I should be able to experiment with the herbs I have, I am positive I can work it out somehow with just that.

"But even if I teach you, you won't sell anything you create, ok? You are only allowed to sell your products if you have an alchemist’s license! Unlike with other guilds, in the crafter's guild you need to visit a school before getting a license, the alchemist's guild has a slightly special position and is not directly part of the crafter's guild, but they usually share the same building and management staff, so the same rules apply here."

"An adventurer is responsible for his own life and no one gets hurt by a merchant that is bad at trading, other than himself. But an unsafe building or potion can hurt others, that is why they can't just accept anyone."

"Mm, so you went to school?"

"..."

Ehh, somehow that indeed sounded mean.

"N-no I didn't mean it that way, I was just surprised that's how you handle it over here! Because, you see, umm, where I come from a simple test is all you need to do."

Let's just blame our imaginary kingdom!

"Hmm, I see."

What a suspicious glare. Haha, that was close... sigh

"A-anyway, I decided I want to join the Merchant's Guild, for now, how about we go there first, and then we can start with the alchemy?"

"That sounds fine to me, I still have supplies that should last me a few days so I'm not in a hurry to get back to work."

Right, while she has shop attendants that can look after her shop, she is the only working alchemist here.

* * *

At the Merchant's Guild, we were greeted by a middle-aged man who had a business smile that screamed 'In your job interview I told you, you would work with a young team, but all of us are actually in our 40s and we just constantly say that we feel young' to me. Nah, I must be imagining it.

"So, how can I help Fukuda-sama and Silvia-sama?"

"I wanted to register to get a membership here and sell a few items."

"And Silvia-sama is here to be your referrer I assume?"

"Correct."

As Silvia answers, she pulls out a golden card from her bag and shows it to the attendant. Gold? Isn't that pretty fancy? Looks like Silvia has a pretty good standing here. I wonder what her rank in the Alchemist's Guild is.

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While I think about that, the man nods to Silvia and pulls out a form.

"Mm, certainly, would Fukuda-sama please fill out this form and show me an ID, please? I'll begin with the membership process in the meanwhile."

Siliva is looking with an 'I told you, didn't I?!' face at me. Ughh, can I maybe bribe my way through? No, this is the Merchant's Guild no way they accept bribes here. Besides, I'm also as broke as it gets now that I think about it... so depressing. Sigh

"Well, I somehow seem to have lost my ID, is there maybe another way we can proceed?"

"I'm sorry, if that's the case, getting a membership would be impossible, even with a referrer with a gold level membership. Please get at least a temporary ID from the guards at the gate and come back after."

"Ugh, but I-"

As I was about to shit some random excuses to not wait in that huge line, I saw yesterday I got interrupted by a woman's voice that comes from the upper floor.

"It's fine, Fredo I'll handle the ID issue, just proceed with the Membership."

A tall beauty is descending the stairs in the back. Long straight white hair that goes up to her hips, blue eyes, a black long open side skirt, and an equally revealing black top. She has a red thin cloth on top and several accessories. So far she is the sexiest woman I've encountered, with beautiful legs and two quite large weapons at the front.

""Guild Master?!""

Both the attendant, Fredo-san, and Silvia exclaim in a shocked manner. Yep, I'm also plenty surprised here.

The guild master walks dangerously close to me and lowers her back to the front, our faces are almost touching and I can feel her breath on my face. And most importantly, I can see 'everything' you know?! Is that fine?

"Oh my~, you're indeed quite the cute boy, aren't you~?"

She says something I think, at least I feel like I heard some seductive sounds right now, but my eyes and brain are focused on something else right now.

"Fufufu~ if it's like this I'll also handle the form, I have all the info in my report anyways~"

She turns around and takes the form from the counter and starts walking to the stairs again. Before walking up the stairs she turns her head around once more and winks at me.

"With this, you'll owe me one, remember that, okay~"

Like that she walks up the stairs. Eh? I feel like something big happened right now?

"Fukuda-sama!"

Fredo-san bows respectfully after looking at my left hand. Huh? A black card? When?

"Please show me the items you wanted to sell, I will handle it right now."

"U-um, yeah, here."

I put the potato sack on top of the counter, I really should buy a proper bag already... By the way, I partially filled it with items again without Silvia noticing, probably. There are about half as many items as yesterday inside.

While Fredo-san is busy handling my items I check out the black card I got.

It is a very simple card, it only has my name in the center and both sides have a golden symbol as a background. That symbol seems to be slightly glowing?

"Haa?! H-Hiro-sama, is that a black membership card?!"

"Huh, eh, look like it, is it something good?"

From the reaction it has to be higher than her golden card, I would also be shocked if someone I was gonna refer suddenly received a higher-level card. Poor Silvia.

"With that, your status in the guild is only second to the Guild Master, you know?!"

"R-really?"

Silvia vigorously nods at me and continues.

"Mm! Mm! While I could upgrade to a platinum membership one day, getting a black card is basically impossible through normal means! Just what did you do for you to receive that?!"

"O-oh, I, umm, honestly I'm not sure why I got this myself. I mean this is the first time I've seen the guild master. I was always by your side ever since I came here, so you should've noticed if I did anything out of the ordinary, no?"

"Uuu, that is true... but even then, I don't know either."

Seems like neither of us knows what is going on anymore. During our exchange, Fredo-san seems to have finished sorting the items and was just waiting for us to finish talking. What a nice guy.

"Fukuda-sama, the total would be 55,000R, would you like to receive it in cash or do you want me to set up a bank account for you? The account would naturally be free of charge you Fukuda-sama."

Huh, 55,000R? Let me repeat, I put half the number of items I sold yesterday in the potato sack, did the old hag Genda really scam me of 90,000R?! I thought getting scammed a bit was fine, but that's a bit much even for me.

"Then please, give me 20,000R and put the rest in the bank."

With this, I should be fine for a while in regards to money.

"Do you have any other request Fukuda-sama?"

"No, I think that's all for me, do you need something here Silvia?"

"No, I only came here for you, even though it turned out I wasn't of any help..."

I give a wry smile while scratching the back of my head. I understand why she's sulking but neither of us could've anticipated what happened.

"I'm still happy you came with me, it honestly would've been too much for me alone."

"Mm! I'm glad if I could somehow help."

"Then we'll be taking our leave, thank you for the help, Fredo-san."

"Yes, if you have any other requests, please visit us again!"

Like that Silvia and I leave the guild to return to her shop.