Chapter 393: Packing

One month passed faster than Sage expected.

The deadline he had placed before everyone during that meeting had seemed generous at first, but the following weeks quickly became some of the busiest the Adventurer Guild had experienced since its regional expansion began.

Leona and Caelista spent nearly every day learning the parts of Guild management they had previously been able to ignore as adventurers, sitting through regional finance reviews with Lyana in the mornings, meeting Branch Guildmasters in the afternoons, studying Guild laws and mission procedures in the evenings, and occasionally being dragged into problems Sage deliberately refused to solve for them.

During the first week, he remained beside them whenever a major decision appeared. During the second, he listened while they made those decisions themselves.

By the third week, Sage stopped attending several meetings entirely and simply reviewed the results afterward. The final week became the real test.

For seven straight days, every report from Evergreen’s branches went through Leona and Caelista first, every operational dispute reached their desks instead of Sage’s, and unless something threatened the entire Guild, Sage deliberately kept his hands away from it.

There had been mistakes, arguments and several decisions that Sage would personally have handled differently, but nothing collapsed. More importantly, the two women learned from each mistake without needing him to rescue them.

On the morning of his departure, Sage stood alone inside his office with the regional map spread across the wall before him.

Nearly every major city in Evergreen now possessed an Adventurer Guild branch, while towns and important trade routes were supported by smaller Guild offices and mission stations.

He had spent the previous several days completing his final inspections, traveling through the largest branches, speaking with their Guildmasters and making sure nobody was confused about the new chain of command.

The results had satisfied him enough that he had returned to Greyvale the previous evening without adding another week to his departure date. Now there was only one final thing he wanted to see.

Sage silently called upon the System, and a translucent interface appeared before him.

━━━━━

[ EVERGREEN REGIONAL GUILD ]

Regional Guildmaster: Leona

Vice Regional Guildmaster: Caelista

Regional Headquarters: Greyvale City

Guild Rank: C

Active Members: 400,000+

Territory: Evergreen Region

Operational Status: Stable

━━━━━━━━

Sage’s gaze lingered on the first two names longer than anything else.

Seeing someone else’s name beside Regional Guildmaster was strange after spending so long building everything around himself, but that was exactly why he had done it.

A Guild that collapsed whenever its founder walked away wasn’t an organization; it was simply a group of people following one man.

Sage wanted something capable of surviving him, expanding without him and eventually operating across the entire Kingdom without requiring his permission for every minor decision.

He moved through the branch information one last time, checking Riverdale, Stonebridge, Silvercrest and several other major locations. Revenue remained stable.

Mission completion rates were normal. Personnel numbers showed nothing alarming. There were several minor disputes and outstanding reports, but those were now Leona and Caelista’s problems.

Sage smiled at that thought, dismissed the interface and turned toward the door.

"Good luck."

By the time he reached the ground floor, the Guild Hall was already operating as though this were any other morning.

Adventurers crowded around mission boards, receptionists worked behind long counters, employees carried documents between offices and several parties were arguing over which registered dungeon they wanted to enter next.

Sage walked through it slowly, occasionally receiving greetings from people who recognized him, although nobody tried to stop him for long. That, perhaps more than anything else, convinced him he could leave.

There had been a time when practically every problem inside this building eventually found its way to him. Now hundreds of people were working around him without needing to know where the Guildmaster was.

He stepped through the main entrance and immediately found evidence that not everyone shared his calm attitude toward departure.

A large carriage waited near the road with several horses prepared beside it, and Boren was standing proudly beside a mountain of luggage that looked large enough to supply a small expedition.

There were wooden trunks, travel bags, rolled blankets, two crates, several smaller boxes and what appeared to be an entire cooking set strapped together near the bottom.

One Guild worker was attempting to determine how everything could possibly fit onto the carriage while another had simply stopped trying.

Sage approached without saying anything at first, slowly walked around the pile and then looked at Boren. "Are we traveling to the Royal Capital, or are you relocating the entire Guild?"

Boren placed both hands on his waist. "You laugh now, Guildmaster , but when we’re three days from the nearest decent inn and everyone suddenly wants something they forgot to pack, we’ll see who’s prepared."

Sage pointed toward one of the crates. "What’s in there?"

"Food."

"And the other one?"

"Emergency food."

Sage stared at him. "What makes it emergency food?"

"It’s the food we eat after the first food is gone."

Gregor’s laughter came from behind them before Sage could answer. "I told you not to ask. I watched him pack yesterday. Half of that has nothing to do with reaching the Capital ."

Boren turned indignantly toward Gregor, who had arrived with Brutus and Caelis. "That’s easy for you to say when you’re staying here surrounded by restaurants. Some of us are going into the unknown."

"The Royal Capital," Caelis reminded him, "is not the unknown. Millions of people somehow live there without carrying emergency sausages."

"That’s because they already arrived."

Sage decided continuing the argument would only encourage him and turned toward Mina, who had appeared beside Lyana carrying a single small travel bag.

The sight initially filled Sage with relief. At least one of his companions understood reasonable packing.

Then he looked more closely at the bag, frowned and asked, "Mina, where’s the rest of your luggage?"

"This is everything." Mina proudly lifted the bag.

Sage’s suspicion immediately returned. "Show me."

Mina hugged it against her chest. "Why?"

"Because I know you."