Thieves’ Guild
“No need, I still have matters to attend to. I’ll return at night,” Leylin got up to reject her, ignoring Madam Tillen’s resentful expression behind his back.
“Master, where are we going?” Karen stood next to Leylin, as well-behaved as a maid. Although the talks had not even begun, she acted as if she already belonged to him.
Hulk and Giant stood further away like a pair of loyal Imperial bodyguards.
“Call a few over to come with us and recruit the sailors,” Leylin said. Be it the Scarlet Tiger or the merfolk ship, they currently had a severe shortage in sailors. As a result, they needed to recruit a great number of sailors as quickly as possible. Pirates’ Cove would always have plenty of these fellows, one only needed to carefully choose from them.
‘Whips and Whiskey!’ Leylin looked at the tavern’s name rather speechlessly, but still opened the wooden door. Although it was still morning, the tavern was filled with people doing business, as well as many hungover drunkards.
“Boss! We found some people last night, and they’re all waiting here for you!” Giant smiled in his simple manner, suddenly hammering on the surface of the counter. It made all the hanging beer mugs shake chaotically with an ear-splitting sound.
“So it’s you, the fellow from last night! Hurry up and settle your bar tab!” A bleary-eyed old drunkard crawled out from the small door behind the bar, glaring at Giant with disdain. Once he saw Leylin however, his eyes seemed to brighten up considerably.
Perhaps he had seen the beautiful clothes that Leylin wore, and reckoned that this was the golden benefactor who could settle the bad debt.
“Greetings, dear customer!” The old man bowed deeply, smiling until his eyes almost seemed to disappear into his wrinkles.
There was a huge gap in his treatment of Leylin and how he had treated Giant before, but Giant only muttered a few words under his breath, and did not dare to say anything else.
After all, he had tasted Leylin’s methods before.
“What would you like?”
“A glass of rum! The rest of you are free to choose your own!” Leylin waved his hand and sat next to the counter, “Where are the people you found? Call them out and let me have a look at them.”
His standards were not too high at the moment, and ordinary pirates would suffice. Death would help him select the cream of the crop.
“Wait, boss!” Giant scratched his head, and rushed to gap between a few sofas like a hurricane, and began to beat the sofas up with kicks and punches. Loud curses could be heard from inside the sofas.
After a few seconds, over ten badly battered pirates with swollen faces and bleeding noses were driven out by Giant. Although they were wounded, these pirates had a rather lively temperament, which was beyond Leylin’s expectations.
“Giant, are these the people you fought with last night?” Leylin suddenly had a premonition.
“That’s right, boss!” Giant laughed in his simple manner, “These fellows are pretty tough, and they can hold their own against my beatings. I think they would do well in the battle squadron...”
Giant’s gifted strength was already on the level of a rank 5 Warrior, and he would not do badly against rank 6 or rank 7 Warriors either. For him to give this evaluation, the men must be rather powerful themselves.
At that point, they also knew that Leylin might become their employer, and they looked uneasily at the big fellow standing in the middle amongst them.
“Mm? What’s your name?” Leylin looked at the fellow that was obviously their leader. He had a bearded face, and a pair of eyes that looked half-asleep, which glimmered with intelligence from time to time.
“This is a fellow with a lot of stories to tell!” Leylin judged him on his very first glance.
“Ronald! My name is Ronald, my lord!” His tone of voice was very respectful and decorous, and he even seemed to have learnt a little noble etiquette.
“Can you read?” This sort of subtle distinction aroused Leylin’s interest.
“I previously spent some time in the Tillen scholars’ family learning how to write,” Ronald was very humble, and although they had only just met, he had immediately realised that Leylin was not an ordinary youth.
Not only could he subdue a subordinate like Giant, his temperament was different.
Only a life of abundance, and a long period of etiquette and culture lessons could nurture such an awe-inspiring presence, and an air of nobility.
In these times, a man like him represented hope!
“Very good! Ronald, are you willing to swear loyalty to me?” Leylin smiled, requesting loyalty rather than employment. This was clearly the invitation of a noble, and Ronald was stunned by it.
He was only startled for a short moment however. Ronald clenched his teeth and asked, “I want to ask my lord if you’re part of the Louis family? If so, then please forgive me, as it would be difficult for me to agree!”
“Why is that? Are they your enemies?” Leylin asked with great interest. He immediately saw a trace of hatred within Ronald’s eyes.
This complex change in emotion surfaced only for a moment, but it could not be concealed from Leylin’s gaze.
“Yes,” Ronald clenched his teeth and took a gamble. After all, if Leylin was a young master from the Louis family, then this situation would not end well for him.
At this moment, the atmosphere became rather delicate. The ten pirates next to Ronald glared at Leylin and his men, as if they were ready to leap into action if the response was unfavourable.
The boss of this place had long hid under the counter, and was obviously experienced with these abnormal situations.
“Haha... Haha...” Just when the atmosphere grew so tense that time almost came to standstill, Leylin suddenly laughed. His rippling laughter disrupted the heavy atmosphere, just like a rock being thrown into still water.
“I’m not one of Marquis Louis’ cronies. On the contrary, my family has a grudge against him,” Leylin spoke slowly, “After all, even if the Marquis needed men, it would be impossible for him to come and recruit here in the Pirates’ Cove, wouldn’t it?”
“Then, this Ronald is willing to accept your employment, my lord!” He skillfully answered Leylin’s previous question, and clearly did not put any heart into his reply. However, that was normal.
Leylin was not brain-dead enough to think that once he exuded his oppressing aura as a hero, subordinates would come running over to worship him.
Perhaps only after he had lead Ronald to begin taking action against Marquis Louis, would he be able to obtain true loyalty from him. Only once he had destroyed Marquis Louis would Ronald be willing to die for him.
‘However, having this sort of effect at the beginning is already good!’
“Very well, from now on you will be a sailor on the Scarlet Tiger ship. Ronald, you are my second officer!” Since there were many available positions now, he needed to fill the gaps quickly.
“Haha... This fellow, welcome to the family! Boss, bring the rum!” Giant firmly slapped Ronald’s back, making him stumble.
“No problem!” The boss who had previously hid under the counter immediately stretched out his hand, a cunning expression on his face, “Only... Shouldn’t you clear your bar tab before you continue drinking? Since you’ve already been hired by someone, doesn’t that mean you’ll have money very soon? Poor old Fade can’t stay afloat any longer...”
After he finished, he even winked at Leylin several times and squeezed out a few drops of crocodile tears.
After he heard this, Ronald and the others bowed their heads, and their faces flushed in shame.
‘It looks like these people all didn’t have enough to pay their bill, and were locked up here last night,’ Leylin grudgingly sighed.
“Tell me! How much money do they owe you?”
After walking out of the bar, the group of men behind Leylin’s back still looked rather ashamed.
“I’ve given you the criteria of the men I’d like to recruit, so now it’s up to you to recruit people. I need 100 men!” Leylin said to Hulk, after they had walked for a while.
“Don’t worry, my lord!” As a guard of the Faulen family, Hulk’s loyalty towards Leylin was very strong.
“Mm, go and attend to your business. There’s no need to follow me,” Leylin waved his hand to dismiss the others behind him.
“Master!” Karen followed behind Leylin with a worried expression on her face.
“Don’t worry, once I make a promise, there is no way that it won’t be fulfilled,” Leylin said in a gentle voice, but Karen involuntarily trembled.
“Alright. Please be careful, Pirates’ Cove is extremely chaotic...”
“Mm, I know,” Leylin nodded, disappeared into an alley on the side of the street.
Pirates’ Cove had a complex labyrinth of back alleys, and each one could allow only one person to pass. It was obviously crowded and chaotic and the floor was filled with slop and filthy things, making it smell absolutely awful.
However, Leylin’s gaze was fixed on a unique symbol in a corner of the alleyway. It was a symbol of two crossed daggers, which faintly pointed towards a certain direction.
“The Thieves’ Guild!” Leylin smiled, and immediately walked in the direction that the daggers were pointing to.
In the World of Gods, more and more people were able to advance into a profession. However, the one’s that attracted the most attention and had endured the longest were the three guilds- the Thieves’ Guild, the Warriors’ Guild and Wizards’ Guild!
These three guilds would frequently issue missions, which would bring great benefits to adventurer groups.
In the World of Gods, the number of shrines and whether the three major guilds were hosted there, was a major indicator of the prosperity of a city.
Pirates’ Cove naturally did not host the Wizards’ Guild, but Leylin had seen the Warriors’ Guild as their symbol had been very striking.
The Thieves’ Guild was an enormous organisation which had been secretly hidden in the dark, and their missions tended towards secrecy. Most of them were requests for assassinations or theft.
However, it was this dark network that seemed to permeate the entire continent, and rumour had it that they had the blessings of many gods.
Yes, the three great guilds each had the backing of more than one god!