I wandered around aimlessly for a while, taking my time to sightsee a bit more. The hub was still a fascinating place, and around every corner waited new wonders. If I had to compare it to something, it would be Las Vegas. The city that never sleeps. The city that built scale models of famous landmarks from around the world. Similarly, the travelers living in the hub did their best to show off things from their home, making it an excellent place to wander around in.
I did my best to pay attention to my surroundings with my void feelers, but wasn’t able to determine if I was being followed or not. Either they backed off after I told them I was heavily considering joining, or they’d gotten someone that was better at spying to keep an eye on me. Regardless, I took my time taking in the city, occasionally stopping to take in some particular building, slowly making my way in the rough direction I knew the Tier 0 building to be. Thankfully, I hadn’t gone terribly far away from it, so locating it wasn’t too difficult, especially once I started noticing unique buildings I’d seen before.
A few minutes later I once again stood before the square guild house and hastily made my way in, before any potential observers could get any funny ideas. I made sure to close the door behind me and made my way over to the desk, ringing the bell that sat on it. Waiting for somebody to show up felt like forever. The longer I had to wait, the more paranoid I got. I didn’t have any concrete proof, but I had latched on to the idea that I was completely right and Remnant would stop at close to nothing to recruit me. I felt alone on this massive planet full of travelers, and desperately needed to find a place to hide.
In this case, my hiding spot would be under the wings of one of the Nineteen.
Eventually, the elevator platform rose upwards, no doubt to finally get someone to come and get me. It only took a few seconds before the platform came back down, carrying the vice-guildmaster, Jorm.
“Gary, pleasure to meet you again,” he gave me a little wave with his tail. “Although I must admit that we didn’t expect you to be back so soon.”
“Plans have changed,” I replied, nervously eyeing the door. Remnant had barged their way in here once before, and they might do it again. “I’ve decided to join your guild.”
“Fantastic news,” Jorm gave me a big smile as he slithered over to me. “But you seem stressed. Why?”
“I think the guys from Remnant are doing some shifty stuff in order to get me to join them…” I said hastily. “I got a whole bunch of contracts from other interested guilds, but most of the ones I showed even a remote interest in came to rescind their offer…”
“Oh…” Jorm seemed to deflate a bit at my news. “I’d hoped you wanted to join us because of our superior charm… And since you are one of us.”
“I do like you guys, and I think I’m a good fit and all that,” I kept glancing back at the door. “It’s just… my decision has been sped up by recent developments. And I think y’all are just about the only safe haven for me if I’m right.”
“Right… Remnant is well known for pulling shady stuff all the time, so I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that you are correct in your assumptions.” Jorm gestured to the elevator platform. “Why don’t we go back to Polly’s office and discuss things a bit further. I’m sure he’d feel bitter about you joining us because you felt you had no other choice. We’ll send some people out to investigate, figure out if there’s any truth to your claims, and then you can decide what you want to do next.”
“Right, right, that would be nice.”
I made my way over to the elevator, calming down a bit. I wasn’t built for this type of confrontation, and it unsettled me greatly. I had become so used to simply blowing away all my problems, or die trying. But this situation wouldn’t go away if I blew stuff up; on the contrary, it’d create even bigger problems. There were rules against fighting here, and even if there weren’t, Remnant had tons of members that could squash me like a bug. I felt helpless, and I hated it.
I was corralled into the same office I’d sat in just a few hours earlier, and I dragged a chair over to the big table, making sure to take one that looked to be made of the same material as the one I sat in before. Jorm assured me that he was getting Polly up here as fast as he could, which helped calm me down a bit. But now I was alone in an empty room with nothing but my thoughts to keep me company. As my emotions settled, I couldn’t help but wonder if I was blowing things out of proportion.
Was I reading too much into a series of unfortunate events? I was judging traveler society by Earth standards, which couldn’t be accurate. My main points were that offers were walked back, while a guy with a perfectly fine explanation just happened to be near me. Was that really enough grounds to assume the worst? Was I making a mistake?
“Gary!” The door flew open, admitting Polly, closely followed by Jorm, both of whom I’d seen coming thanks to my void feelers. “I heard you’ve encountered some… issues.”
“I… I’m not entirely sure… to be honest.”
Polly didn’t go to sit behind his desk this time, instead opting to pull over an oversized bird perch from the mess of chairs. Jorm simply piled himself up next to the table, only his head visible from my side.
“Why don’t you tell me what happened in detail, and then we can discuss your concerns?” Polly ruffled his feathers as he settled on his glorified stick.
For the next few minutes, I retold everything that happened after I left the guild, including my suspicions and my uncertainty about whether I was judging things by out-of-date standards. Polly and Jorm listened attentively, only stopping me to ask clarifying questions, until eventually I’d told them everything.
“It certainly sounds like a convenient series of coincidences for Remnant…” Polly rubbed his chin with the tip of his right wing, looking thoughtfully out the window. “And, even if I shouldn’t be talking about Remnant this way, I wouldn’t be surprised to find out you are right in your assumptions. Remnant has been trying to get a voidling into their guild for a long time, and I’ve heard rumors about them harassing new arrivals, and even getting blacklisted from several places that employ voidlings…”
“Screw not talking bad about them just because they're helmed by a Nineteen,” Jorm slammed the end of his tail on the table. “Remnant has always been ruthless, and if you ask me, he’s finally decided to throw caution to the wind.”
“Maybe so, but legally speaking, they haven’t done anything wrong,” Polly sighed. “Remnant has some of the top lawyers in his employ, so you can be certain everything they’ve done is just barely on the legal side of things… Like bribing guilds to withdraw their offers, and vague threats of bad business for those that wouldn’t be bought. It’s all frustratingly… allowed.”
“If they even did any of that, and I’m not just paranoid,” I said, caught between feeling happy that they were taking me seriously and bad because I may be making a fuss about nothing.
“That’s true,” Polly nodded. “But also pretty easy to verify.”
“It is?”
“Oh yeah, as I told you earlier, we’ve already dispatched someone to look into it,” Jorm smiled and shot me a self-satisfied look. “Anything to get some dirt on those bastards. And if anyone can find out the truth, it’s our own legal powerhouse. I’m sure she’ll be back with results any second now…”
“Would she happen to be an ant?” I asked, observing a large ant making its way down the corridor with my void feelers. Curiously walking along the ceiling. “If she is, she’s about to knock.”
“She is indeed,” Polly replied shortly before the door swung open, the ant frozen mid-knock motion. Apparently, Polly had some kind of telekinesis and was able to hide the glow from skill activation.
“Guild master, vice-guild master,” the ant caught itself quickly after the small surprise and stepped into the room. Still on the ceiling. Around her floated a plethora of clipboards, folders, and loose papers, orbiting the monster as if they were part of her. “And you must be Gary, pleased to meet you.”
The first impression of the ant I got was that she was of the type to not tolerate any funny business. The second was that she kind of reminded me of the Asphons. Her exterior chitin looked to be well-polished and was a dark purple in coloration. She was about the same size as me when I was in my adult form, and her mandibles looked fairly small and non-threatening, even though they were most likely anything but.
“I trust you have found out everything you could, Chantalle?” Polly asked, looking up at the ant being orbited by documents.
“I have, and the results aren’t pretty,” the ant, Chantalle, replied while a folder floated over to Polly, several papers spreading before him on the table. “According to my sources, all of the guilds that rescinded their offers were visited by Remnant lawyers. I’m not privy to the details, but the conclusion seems fairly obvious. I’ve also heard whispers that the recruiter who failed to recruit Gary at the arrival hub has been killed off by Remnant himself.”
I winced as I remembered that one guy swearing up and down he’d be killed if I didn’t join his guild. At the time, I’d thought it was a pity play, which was reinforced by Liam. Apparently, he was serious. As if I didn’t have enough reasons to dislike Remnant, every time I heard about the guild or the person, I couldn’t help but lower my evaluation of them.
“Disgusting, as always,” Polly sighed as he looked over the papers. “I’m sorry, Gary, but it looks like you were right in your assumptions. As it is, the only guilds you can join where you won’t be constantly harassed by them are either Tier 0 or Summit 8, which is Awotwi’s guild.”
I looked out of the window, looking at the mountain-sized monster, currently at rest. It made sense that the big guy also was the head of a guild, as most likely most, if not all, of the Nineteen were. What it boiled down to was, due to my status as a voidling, the only ones that could properly defend me from the advances of Remnant would be a guild at the same level that couldn’t be bullied into submission.
“It’s certainly not how I imagined things to go,” I said after a while of contemplation. “But if I’m honest, your guild is as perfect a fit for me as I could ask for… and you seem like decent enough people. So, although it may be a bit hasty, I would like to join your guild. If you’d have me.”
“Of course we’d have you,” Polly smiled and spread his wings. “Any traveler who faced the hardships of tier zero is welcome here. I know you only got a standardized contract due to time restraints, but I’d be happy to renegotiate portions of it to reflect your special status.”
“Actually…” I couldn’t help but smile as well. “I’m perfectly fine with the regular contract. If you don’t mind.”
“If that’s what you want,” Polly replied, and I could swear I could hear a hint of satisfaction in his voice. “Since Chantalle and Jorm are both here, we have everybody present needed to make this official. Why don’t we get started on that?”