Chapter 23: Chapter Twenty-One: Tour de Guild

Mayari softly closed the door behind her, then turned to face me.

“So, where should we start?” she asked.

‘Aren’t you the one giving the tour? Why are you asking me?’

“Well, maybe before we go anywhere, you could maybe explain what exactly the guild is?”

She snapped her fingers. “Great question!”

“Okay, let's see…The Guild as it's called is a sort of international self-governing entity. It was founded here in the Aloha Kingdom, but instances can be found in almost all the counties of the Beasuha Conglomerate. There are also a couple of them in Spectria Empires. Hmm...? Am I going too fast?”

Noticing my confusion, Mayari stopped her explanation.

“Okay. First, can you expound upon the Aloha Kingdom, the Beasuha Conglomerate, and the Spectria Empires?” I asked.

“Oh right, I keep forgetting you don’t know anything,” She smacked her forehead. “No offense.”

“None taken,” I replied.

“Okay, good. So let’s start with the Kingdom of Aloha then? It’s definitely the one I know the most about. Hmm, let's see….it’s a relatively recently formed government. Because of the geological location, the kingdom is a way away from most of their allies, so there was little room for incompetent people in power. As such the founders thought to base the hierarchy heavily on merit. Also obvious from the location, most inhabitants are sea fish-kin. Got it?”

‘That was more informative than I was expecting…but that confirms my suspicion. We’re underwater…I thought it was odd that all the people I met so far were fish people. But why am I okay then? I was a snake and a tree…neither of which could breathe underwater last time I checked.’

Putting my thoughts aside, I nodded my head, signaling for Mayari to continue.

“Moving on to the Beasuha Conglomerate. It’s basically an intergovernmental alliance between most of the beastkin ruled kingdoms and empires. The Aloha Kingdom is actually a member of the BC. The Spectra Kingdoms are just the grouping of the governments run by more of the supernatural entities.”

“Supernatural entities?” 

“You know, people like ghosts, angels, demons, and vampires? All that jazz.”

“Ah, okay that makes sense,” I said with a nod.

“Now, the rest will make more sense if I explain it when I show it to you. Come on,” she beckoned me over with a wave.

She grabbed my hand and we set off down a hallway.

After several twists and turns with me following behind the redhead like a baby duck, I spoke up.

“I have to know. How do you not get lost in here? Every hallway looks the exact same!”

“It’s simple, just make sure you're over five feet tall and you should be fine,” she cackled, turning her head to poke her tongue at me.

I felt my cheeks swell as I pouted.

“Hehehe! Don’t get mad at me Maua. I was just joking! Seriously though, the real answer is years of practice and a good memory.”

‘Yikes.’

“Come on, We’re almost to our first stop.”

A few minutes later, we arrived somewhere that looked almost like a bank. 

On one side there was a line of reception desks, and on the opposite side, there was a large row of tables.

In the back, there were several bulletin boards.

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It was a very busy area, with people conversing and moving around endlessly.

“This is the hub of the Guild. Well, guilds is more accurate. See the Guild is really just an umbrella slash centralized location for an assortment of organizations. We have the Merchants Guild, the Smithing guild, the Agriculture Guild, among several others,” she waved her arm across the room. “Here, is where requests are generally made and accepted.”

“The reception desks,” she pointed at the long line of desks. “Are generally manned by members of the Merchant Guild. A person with a request can come in and consult a clerk. After a formal request is agreed on, its pinned to the bulletin board for the corresponding guild. The client also receives a pager, that lets them know when someone is interested in their request.”

“Depending on the type of request, there may be need for approval from the client before it is accepted. There’s also the possibility for some negotiation or a change in the request. All of this happens at those tables, mediated by a member of the Merchant Guild.”

‘Not a bad system. Seems pretty fair to me.’

“Is there an Adventuring Guild?” I asked.

“Adventuring Guild? Everyone asks that. But no. The closest thing we have is the Mercenary Guild. Or as I like to call it Guildus Miscellaneous.”

“So they do all the odd jobs that don’t fit anyone else’s paygrade?”

“Pretty much. That just happens to be out of the way locations a lot of the time.”

‘Well, that’s pretty cool.’

“Also hiring powerful people allows the guild to keep an eye on them.”

“Right…that kind of correlates with my line of thinking…I was wondering, wouldn’t the governments be wary of the Guild for its influence? It sounds like they enlist power individuals and have monopolies on major facets of the economy and society as a whole.”

“Whoa, slow down Maua. You’re a cutie and a smartie? What else can you do, juggle?” Mayari said with an astonished expression.

“What? No, I can’t juggle.” 

“That’s too bad. Still, you’ll be the ultimate catch for whoever you decide to be with,” she replied nodding her head appreciatively. 

‘I don’t think I can have feelings for someone like that again.’

“But to answer the question, the Guild acts as an aid to the governments. It shares the information it gathers on potentially dangerous individuals with the governing bodies. And we don’t quite have monopolies… it's more like it’s just a lot easier to conduct business within the Guild? Plus, we pay a large amount in taxes to stimulate the economy that way. Any other questions for now?”

“No, I don’t think so.” I shook my head.

“Alright then, let’s keep going then.” she grabbed my hand again.

From there we went to the Smithing center. Which was exactly how you might have guessed it to be. Hot, steamy, and…furnacy?

We quickly moved passed it as it was pretty self-explanatory. Other than the fact that they were smithing underwater. When I asked, I was answered with one word as an explanation.

“Magic.”

After that, we to the Merchant Guild’s hub. It was pretty much like a shipment warehouse. But instead of trucks, products were being imported and exported in the mouths of giant fish.

We made a few more stops at the major guilds spots, but nothing really stood out to me. 

Other than the training area. It was apparently open for all members of the Guild. It was a giant field of grass, surrounded by stairs. It looked like a massive football stadium. 

What made it so cool was the feature the guild had somehow added to it. The feature allowed a near-infinite number of instances to be duplicated of the training field, with the user being able to simulate almost anything they want to fight against, all while not bothering anyone else using it. Also, any damage sustained in the simulation wasn't transferred to the user's actual body. It was like a fudging sandbox videogame.

Once I finally got over the amazingness of the field, Mayari dragged me away. Soon enough we were back where we started with Master and Ms. Kna’Ve waiting for us.