"Come on, stop looking at me like that. I do not bite!"
As soon as the old master took a seat within the room where he led me, he exhaled deeply before looking at me with sparks of joy burning in his eyes.
"You are not a voluptuous young woman, so there is nothing for you to worry about."
This time, this old man didn't care at all for any resemblance of his appearance, openly grinning at his own, silly joke.
"Sir… Master… Forgive me if I wronged you by calling you in the wrong way, master. I joined the sect just recently, so I'm foreign to all the proper forms of referring to the better of me."
Lowering my head, I uttered those prideless words without even a shred of effort. After all, how hard it could be to open your mouth, put your lips in a specific order and breathe out the air while making your voice strings vibrate to the tune? I could never understand how some would treat every single word of theirs with passion and pride, most of the times losing a great deal because of that!
"Ah… Don't tell me you are one of those… No, nevermind. Not with that clever look inside your eyes, young man. As for your question, you can refer to me in any way that you want. After all, I'm nothing more but an old man for you. For now, that is."
With the corners of the lips of the elder raising up, an even greater smile appeared on his face. Yet, despite how insanely high his position was bound to be for both my teacher and her colleague to call him master, there was no sign of pride or arrogance in that smile. While others might take it for a bad signal that they wouldn't be able to penetrate the old man's thoughts, I spent long enough in all levels of hierarchy within my organisation to be perfectly capable of reading people like an open book.
And no matter the world, no matter the strength, natural habits and ticks that one would perform without a thought in specific scenarios simply couldn't change as long as we were all within the realm of humans.
"Master… I do not understand what are you trying to say…"
Keeping my head lowered, I slowly allowed myself to look around. Contrary to what one could expect, the room where the two of us were didn't hold any kind of specific equipment. To be more precise, outside of several pieces of perfectly ordinary furniture like chairs, paintings and some decorative plants, there was absolutely nothing else in the room at all!
"Okay, okay. Let's cut to the chase. When I told that I will be testing your aptitude towards different branches of my shared guild… I simply lied. Or to be more specific, I used the words that didn't exactly portray what I had in mind."
Turning his kind smile to a mischievous one, the elder suddenly stood up from his chair without using the help of his cane at all. From how glib and gentle his moves were, I could tell that this cane was nothing but a piece of his character that he decided to for some reason create.
"Sir, what does that mean? Or rather…"
Seeing how this elder was quite openly showing his cards to me I decided to drop the act of a terrified young student as well. While my consciousness screamed that it was a potentially bad move, this was the minimum that I had to do in order to show respect to the man who opened so much to me. No matter what the reasons for doing so were.
"What will become of me now, guild master?"
Speaking those words couldn't give more joy to the old man. His lips breaking what I thought the be the limits of how high their corners could rise, I could tell that this strange person was ecstatic with my change of attitude.
"Simply said, I will let you decide which of the branches you would like to joy. I hope you understand the unpleasant implications behind those words just as much as you understand the possibilities that I'm willing to offer you with that."
Hearing those words I barely managed to hold myself back from laughing. In terms of the art of playing around with the words, I was quite certain that I held way more experience than this man.
His words obviously implicated that while I was free to pick any of the branches that I would fancy, the fact that I would join his guild was already decided. It seemed that my instant assumption steeming from the old man's words that he was indeed the master of this entire guild managed to raise my status in the elder's eyes.
And as great as receiving some recognition form someone potentially incredibly influential was, it also meant that I could no longer back down from mingling with him.
"My limitations are nearly endless, aren't they?"
Replying to the elder with an ironic grin on my face, I intentionally butchered the common saying. After all, this version of it was way closer to my current reality than speaking about something as fickle as opportunities.
"It's nice to finally talk with someone clever. Since that's the case, I think I owe you an explanation about what will happen now."
Approaching one of the huge bookcases that occupied the entirety of one of the room's walls, the old man picked one of the relatively modern-looking books, seemingly at random. Throwing it to me, he smiled.
"In this short script, you will learn about all the specifics of all the branches of my guild. Once you decide which one suits your interests the most…"
Opening up the book, I couldn't help but assume a troubled look on my face. Noticing that, the elder stopped speaking and looked at me with a puzzled expression, perfectly conveying the question he wanted to ask without using his voice at all.
"Sir, I know this might sound uncommon… But it appears that I'm unable to read those letters."
At first, the old man seemed to be greatly surprised, only to swing his hand in the very next moment, as if disregarding all the doubts and hesitations that had to appear in his mind when he heard my sentence.
"Uncommon? That's way too big of an understatement. But I'm not here to judge you but to help you pick the right place to grow. After all, the higher you soar, the better my own situation will be."
Suddenly starting to pace around the room, the old man occasionally stole glances at me, as if battling with himself inside his mind about how he should solve the current situation. After a moment, it seemed as if he came to a certain conclusion, stoping his relentless march and turning towards me.
"Since that's the case, then I will quickly explain everything that you need to know. While I was supposed to deal with something else soon, I can guess that prioritising you might prove to be far more important in the long run than taking on some kind of diplomatic mission from one of the trashy subsidiaries of our sect. So, without further ado, let's begin."
Returning back to his chair, the old man looked at me in silence for a while, before opening his mouth once again.
"Basically, this shared guild consists of alchemist, apothecary, herbalist, refiner, potion master and creiser branches. Each of those roles has its own specific field of expertise, but they all grow up from the same foundations. Starting with alchemy…"