Chapter 414: Guild Upgrade Conditions Fulfilled

The most serious condition was emergency Crown access.

Because the Old Western Garrison remained strategically positioned near the western approaches, the Crown wanted the right to temporarily use designated open areas during a formally declared war, siege or Capital-wide military emergency.

Sage immediately rejected the first wording because it was too broad. "This says ’national security necessity.’ Define it."

Harven frowned slightly. "That wording is standard."

Sage slid the page back. "Then the standard wording gives someone too much discretion. Ten years from now, an official I have never met could decide a political disturbance qualifies as a security necessity and occupy Guild property. If the Crown needs emergency rights, specify the circumstances."

The negotiation over that paragraph alone lasted nearly forty minutes.

Eventually the language was narrowed. Emergency access would apply only during formally declared war, siege, invasion, large-scale monster incursion threatening the Capital or a Royal emergency order issued under specific Kingdom statutes.

Even then, the Crown’s right applied to designated grounds and transportation corridors rather than unrestricted occupation of every Guild building.

The Guild would retain ownership throughout.

Pax read the revised wording twice before nodding.

Then they reached the price.

The Bureau’s initial valuation was eighty-six million gold coins.

Boren made a sound so miserable that everyone at the table looked at him.

Sage felt it too.

Eighty-six million.

The Guild could pay it, but the number wasn’t abstract.

That was money that could establish branches across cities, fund thousands of employees, purchase materials, support adventurers and maintain emergency reserves.

Vault wealth had made Sage rich enough to discuss numbers like this without immediately leaving the room, but it hadn’t made money meaningless.

The Royal Capital had already taught him that lesson several times.

Sage looked at the valuation sheet. "Eighty-six million for a district the Crown hasn’t successfully redeveloped in twenty-six years."

"The valuation reflects its size and location."

"It should also reflect its condition."

"It does."

"Not enough."

Harven’s eyebrows rose.

Sage pointed toward the attached redevelopment assessment. "Your own records estimate that clearing unsafe structures and restoring the internal infrastructure would cost more than twelve million under conventional construction. Several northern parcels can’t be used until the old foundations are removed. Parts of the drainage network require complete replacement. There are squatters the buyer will have to relocate through approved procedures, and you’ve just added construction restrictions because of underground Crown infrastructure."

"Those factors are included in the valuation."

"Then include them again."

Boren slowly looked toward Mina. "That’s my Guildmaster."

The negotiation lasted another hour.

Sage started at sixty million. The Bureau refused immediately. Harven countered with eighty-two.

Sage moved to sixty-four and reminded them that the Crown had collected almost nothing from the district for decades while paying for occasional patrols and safety inspections.

Harven argued that surrounding land values had increased dramatically as the Capital expanded.

Sage countered that those increases clearly hadn’t produced another buyer willing to spend tens of millions restoring a ruined military district.

They eventually stopped at seventy-two million gold coins.

The number hurt.

It hurt even more when Boren quietly repeated it.

"Seventy-two million," he muttered, staring at the agreement as though it had personally insulted his family. "For broken walls, collapsed warehouses, weeds and a crater."

Mina looked thoughtful. "And dirt."

"Thank you, Mina. Seventy-two million for broken walls, collapsed warehouses, weeds, a crater and dirt."

Sage signed the preliminary purchase authorization.

Payment verification took the remainder of the afternoon.

The Guild’s financial documents had to be checked, the transfer recorded, the property boundaries confirmed and the military exclusions attached to the deed.

Sage refused to leave any part of the process entirely to clerks.

He sat through every revision with Pax, reading pages that seemed specifically designed to test whether humans truly needed sleep.

By the time the final document arrived, sunlight had shifted across the conference-room windows.

Harven placed the deed before Sage.

It was thick.

The first pages identified the Adventurer Guild as purchaser and described the Old Western Garrison according to its registered boundaries.

Subsequent sections listed surface structures, public-road exclusions, underground Crown passages, taxation requirements, construction obligations, emergency access provisions and the Guild’s responsibility for lawful removal or relocation of unauthorized occupants.

Attached surveys showed precisely which underground areas remained Crown-controlled.

Sage read everything.

Then he passed it to Pax.

Pax read more slowly.

Boren lasted approximately five minutes beforeresting his forehead against the table. Mina had already abandoned any attempt to understand the documents and was drawing something on a spare sheet of paper.

Eventually Pax reached the final page.

He went back three pages.

Checked one reference against the survey.

Then another.

Finally, he looked at Sage. "Permanent title. No noble claims. No hereditary development rights. No private leaseholder above us. The Crown restrictions are the ones we negotiated. I don’t see an ownership trap."

That was all Sage needed.

He took the pen.

His signature went onto the final page.

Harven signed beneath the authorization section, then took the Bureau’s heavy official seal and pressed it into the prepared wax.

The sound was surprisingly ordinary.

Yet with that single motion, an enormous section of the Royal Capital changed owners.

The Old Western Garrison belonged to the Adventurer Guild.

By the time they left the Bureau of CrownLands, evening was approaching.

Sage carried the deed inside a protective document case while Boren walked beside him in what could only be described as financial mourning.

He had stopped complaining about the price somewhere around the sixty-million mark and now occasionally whispered "seventy-two million" to himself as though repeated exposure might eventually make the number less offensive.

It didn’t.

Sage didn’t return to the hotel.

He hired a carriage and gave the driver directions toward Western Crownway.

The journey felt different this time.

Yesterday, the Old Western Garrison had been an abandoned possibility. Now every ruined wall, collapsed building and overgrown courtyard they approached belonged to the Guild.

The guards at the entrance had already received notice of the transfer and, after checking the temporary ownership documents, opened the old gate.

Sage stepped through first.

Mina followed, then Boren and Pax.

The district hadn’t magically improved because they owned it.

The same weeds covered the training grounds.

The same barracks stood with broken roofs. The same damaged roads crossed between ruined workshops and empty warehouses.

In the distance, the remains of the old military wall still leaned dangerously over one courtyard.

Boren surveyed it all and sighed. "I still can’t believe we paid seventy-two million for this."

Sage barely heard him.

He walked onto the enormous central training ground and stopped.

Yesterday he had imagined what could stand here.

Today he could actually build it.

Mina came up beside him, turning slowly as she looked across the abandoned military grounds. For once, there was no joke immediately waiting on her tongue.

She looked toward the distant barracks, the workshops, the enormous open spaces and the roads stretching between them before finally looking up at Sage.

"So all of this belongs to the Guild now?"

Sage looked across the district.

"Every last piece."

[ DING! ]

Sage froze.

The familiar translucent interface appeared before his eyes.

[Congratulations, Host.]

[The Adventurer Guild has successfully established the territorial foundation required for Kingdom-Level Expansion.]

[Regional development requirements have been fulfilled.]

[Headquarters territory acquired within the Royal Capital.]

[Guild advancement conditions fulfilled.]

[Guild Rank Advancement Available.]

[Current Guild Rank: C]

[Available Advancement: B]

Sage’s eyes widened as another notification appeared.

[Would Host like to initiate Guild Advancement?]

[YES / NO]