"Good evening! Did you sleep well?"
For some unknown reason (Locus suspected that he wanted to be funny), Genken liked to switch morning and evening when greeting him.
Locus himself was sitting in the living room on the small sofa standing in its center.
He held a cup of coffee from the hotel's restaurant and slowly looked at Genken, who was sitting down in the armchair to Locus' left.
"I, in fact, did not."
"And why is that?"
"Because we paid for staying here with money from the guild itself."
Out of nowhere, Genken got a notebook and a pen, as well as a pair of glasses, which he carefully positioned on his nose.
"Very interesting... And how do you feel about that?"
"Are you my psychotherapist now? Would you like me to lay down on the couch?"
Genken wrote something in his notebook.
"Based on your answer, I'd say you have about five minutes left to live."
Locus smiled.
"Ah, nevermind my diagnosis. The smile has cured you."
"Great! Thanks, doc."
"So what's your problem with using the guild's money to pay?"
"Well, what if anyone finds out that we stole from them and comes up here to attack us?"
"Then they would save us a whole lot of effort because that's exactly our goal. The Mastermind Guild shall come and attack. And if we stand our ground for long enough, they might send this High Commander."
Locus took a sip out of his cup.
"Then what if they don't find out?"
"Then we'll have to force them to. If we cause enough damage, they'll have to stop us eventually."
"And how will we cause more damage?"
"Since we've taken care of the money problem, there is nothing we have to worry about. We just have to cause damage."
"Do you have any suggestions?"
"I'm sure the guild has some."
"What?"
"Drink up. We'll go get ourselves a job."
About half an hour later, the two of them were back at the guild. Genken walked up to the adventurer counter that said 'job requests' with Locus following him.
"Good morning, do you have any offensive quests the Mastermind Guild wouldn't like?"
Locus was shocked. Did Genken just walk up to the guild and ask how he could harm them?
"One moment, please."
The lady behind the counter browsed a book behind her.
"We have a few options here. May I ask what your adventurer status is?"
"A rank C party of two."
"Mhm, then how about this one?"
She tore out one of the book's pages and handed it to Genken.
"We'll take it."
"Excellent! May I see your adventurer cards really quick?"
"You may."
Locus and Genken showed them to her.
"Alright, is there anything else I can help you with?"
"No, thank you."
Locus was speechless. What did just happen?
"I already touched on the subject. The relationship between the guild itself and their adventurer business is very complicated. In short terms, quests don't necessarily have to be supportive of the guild."
"How is that possible?"
Genken shrugged.
"When you're working your way up the Mastermind Guild, I'm sure you'll find someone who can explain that to you."
Locus looked at the piece of paper in Genken's hand.
"Which quest do you have there?"
"It looks like you aren't the only one who got their village destroyed."
He held up the piece of paper.
"But our dear employer knows who did it."
"You know who destroyed my village?"
"That's the interesting thing. It was someone else. Our job is 'to make Lieutenant Golmer pay for his actions'. The request is by an anonymous person."
"Do you think that this Lieutenant has something to do with what happened to my village?"
"Well, there's an easy way to find out..."