V16C18: The Young Female Guild Master’s Departure

In the guest room of the guild where Lana Collete serves as the guild master, a newlywed couple had recently visited.

The couple’s name was the Maywoods.

Namely, Neil Clay Maywood and his wife Claudia.

“Congratulations on establishing the guild.”

“Thank you! Welcome, even though it’s far away.”

As Lana smiled and offered tea, Claudia raised her cup and muttered in a low voice.

“It’s on the way to our honeymoon…”

At her as-usual tactless remark, Lana narrowed her eyes slightly and pursed her lips.

“You said ‘on the way’, huh. Well, Southern Doll is a good place. It’s lively with many rare items, perfect for a honeymoon, I think.”

The port town of Southern Doll, where Lana established her guild, is one of the busiest in the Ridill Kingdom. With many people and goods coming and going, the stalls are lined with seafood and exotic items from abroad, always brimming with energy.

Neil, sitting next to Claudia, took a sip of his teacup and said with a smile,

“I peeked at the market earlier and was surprised at how cheap the spices were. In our territory, they cost about ten times as much… Ah, this tea also uses spices, doesn’t it?”

“Yes, that’s right. Brewing milk tea with spices has recently become popular among the nobles in the capital.”

“Does your guild handle spices as well?”

At Neil’s question, Lana gave a slight wry smile.

The truth is that they’re still struggling to deal with spices due to the many regulations on importing them.

“We don’t have the leeway to deal with spices yet. Our main products are keeping us busy enough.”

“…I heard you handle clothes and cosmetics.”

At Claudia’s words, Lana averted her eyes with an “ugh” expression, as if she had hit the mark.

What the guild is currently mainly dealing with is not dresses or cosmetics for noble ladies. Of course, she wants to eventually expand into that area, but for now, Lana’s main products are related to magic tools.

“That gaudy eyeglasses… Duke Anvard suggested it. He wanted us to wholesale the materials for magic tools.”

More than a year ago, Lana had been running around collecting materials to help with the creation of the Black Chalice.

That was the catalyst that led to her developing close ties with Duke Barney Jones of Anvard.

Above all, the “Black Chalice” created by Monica had a huge impact on the magic tool industry. The publicity of having contributed to its production was extremely powerful advertising.

“Recently, I’ve been thinking of handling small magic tools for self-defense. You know, the old amulets were outdated in decoration or lacked sense, so they weren’t very popular, right?”

So Lana suggested to Barney to create decorative magic tools with designs that would be popular in the court.

Defensive ornaments, or amulets, can be broadly divided into two types: those given to knights heading off to slay dragons, and those given by men to women.

Lana proposed designs for both men and women, taking into account practicality and trends. Surprisingly, Barney was enthusiastic about it, and prototypes would be made soon.

“And the robes for mages. Those incorporate spellwork, so they’re a kind of magic tool, but the designs are too practical and, more importantly, not cute at all, right? So we’re working on practical and cute robes as well…”

“…Having Monica wear those would be excellent publicity, huh.”

To Claudia’s mutter, which could be taken as criticizing Lana for exploiting her friend, Lana readily replied, “That’s right.”

As a businesswoman, Lana can’t help but show her commercial instincts at times like this.

“But I also genuinely want Monica to wear cute robes. I was so surprised at how outdated the Seven Sages’ robes looked when I saw them in person! And the sizes were completely off, too!”

As Lana gripped her fists angrily, Neil smiled wryly and said, “Come to think of it, she did have her robe adjusted a year ago, during that incident.”

“Among magic practitioners, there’s this idea that ‘old-fashioned = dignified’ that’s become too ingrained! With more young mages nowadays, magic tools and robes should definitely be fashionable, right?”

As Lana passionately argued for the practicality and design of robes, there was a knock on the door, and the guild’s male secretary called out to Lana about a visitor. Before Lana could ask about the visitor, a loud voice rang out:

“Lana, are you here? I brought a gift to celebrate the opening of your guild!”

＊　＊　＊

“Whoa, I’m surprised Neil and the others were here. I should’ve brought another ham if I’d known!”

The ham Glenn brought as a gift to celebrate the guild’s opening was truly magnificent.

Seeing the huge chunk of ham, Claudia muttered softly,

“…Getting such a big ham during our honeymoon would be troublesome.”

“Ah, maybe you prefer sausages instead?”

Claudia listlessly brushed off Glenn’s words. The two weren’t on bad terms, but their conversations somehow never clicked.

Anyway, about the ham. Such a grand ham was too much for Lana to eat alone, but not enough to distribute among the servants.

Then Lana had a good idea and snapped her fingers.

“Oh, I know. We might as well share it with Monica.”

At those words, Glenn and Neil blinked in puzzlement, and Claudia tilted her head wearily.

“…I heard Silent Witch lives in the deep mountains?”

“That information is outdated. Monica is living in Southern Doll now.”

Lana smiled and looked out the window.

Monica had come to Southern Doll a month ago.

Just before that, Lana had also settled in Southern Doll to establish her guild, so she was quite surprised when Monica visited.

Until then, despite being one of the Seven Sages, Monica had been living in seclusion deep in the mountains, in a remote place a little away from the nearest village. She had food delivered once a month by the villagers.

However, after unveiling the “Black Chalice” at the Supreme Council a year ago, Monica had to show her face not only at the royal palace but also at the Magic Tool Association, the Magician Association, Minerva, Duke Anvard’s territory workshop, and so on. So she decided to move somewhere with better transportation access.

The reason Monica chose Southern Doll was not only for its convenient transportation but also because Lana was there… or so Lana believes, without being conceited.

After all, Monica had said to her with a blush,

‘I can’t run a guild with you… but if you’re handling magic tools at your guild, I think I can help out in various ways.’

Lana was so happy that she ended up hugging Monica, but that’s a secret from Glenn and the others.

＊　＊　＊

Following Lana’s lead, Glenn, Neil, and Claudia visited Monica’s home, bringing the large ham as a gift.

The house where Monica lives is located in a relatively quiet residential area of the port town of Southern Doll.

Although Lana and Monica try to have meals together or go to shops Lana recommends about once a week, and discuss products the guild will handle, Lana hadn’t been able to visit Monica’s home for the past week due to being busy with guild preparations.

“In that sense, food is the perfect gift. Monica tends to forget meals when she’s absorbed in her research… As one of the Seven Sages, she should take on an apprentice to take care of her daily needs, or hire a servant!”

“Eh, apprentices have to take care of their masters’ daily needs!? I’ve never done that, you see!”

At Glenn’s words, Neil smiled vaguely and said, “Well, different people, different strokes.”

Eventually, they arrived at a cute brick house with a red roof.

Lana knocked on the door knocker familiarly… but there was no answer.

Neil murmured, “Maybe she’s out,” but a different possibility crossed Lana’s mind.

“…Don’t tell me… she’s collapsed and sleeping on the floor again…”

While at Selendia Academy, Monica had maintained a relatively regular lifestyle. But her life as one of the Seven Sages was terrible.

Lana, as a guild master, also worked late into the night and sometimes fell asleep on the sofa out of exhaustion, but Monica was on another level.

Finding her buried under piles of paper, sleeping like the dead, was an everyday occurrence.

Worried, Lana turned the doorknob and the door opened easily. It seemed Monica was home after all.

“Monica, are you awake?”

Upon entering and opening the door, Lana’s eyes widened in surprise.

“…Eh?”

The last time she visited, there were piles of paper scattered all the way to the entrance, but now everything was neatly cleaned up. Documents and books were properly arranged on shelves, and a small vase on the desk held cute flowers.

Everywhere you looked, it was a clean, homely house. Before, it didn’t seem like a place where a human could properly live!

As Lana was thinking that Monica must have finally hired a housekeeper, someone came from the kitchen in the back of the room.

“Oh, visitors?”

Lana’s mouth fell open at the person.

A glamorous honey-blonde with mysterious blue eyes. A sweet, well-formed beautiful face with slender, long legs.

“Ah, aah, you’re…!”

“Hey there, long time no see.”

Smiling warmly at them was Isaac Walker, the young man who had once called himself Felix Ark Ridill, the second prince of this country.

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