Chapter 373: Signatures

The conference room became strangely quiet once Sage pushed the thick contracts toward the middle of the table.

For several moments, nobody reached for them. The same people who had fought ancient beasts, crossed collapsing ruins, faced golden golems, escaped an enormous serpent, and survived the Vault were now staring at stacks of paper with more caution than they had shown toward some monsters.

Sage found the sight far more amusing than he probably should have, especially when Boren leaned forward, lifted the first document with both hands, flipped through several pages, and slowly lowered it again with the expression of a man who had just discovered an entirely new form of suffering. Around the table, everyone eventually began reading.

The conference room that had been full of questions only moments earlier was now filled with the soft sound of pages turning, pens tapping against wood, and the occasional tired sigh whenever someone reached another paragraph filled with legal terms.

Gregor was one of the worst offenders. He kept returning to clauses he had already read, his green eyes narrowing every time he found wording he thought could somehow hide another meaning.

He would read three paragraphs, flip backward, compare the new section against an earlier one, then glance toward Sage as though expecting him to suddenly admit that there was a trap buried somewhere inside the contract.

Brutus had the opposite problem. He read everything once and became increasingly annoyed whenever a simple idea took half a page to explain.

"Why does this need so many words?" Brutus finally complained, holding up one page between two thick fingers. "This entire section is basically saying I can’t secretly sell my shares to some noble without permission. You could have written that in one sentence."

Sage looked over from his side of the table. "Because if I write one sentence, someone eventually argues that the sentence didn’t cover some strange situation nobody thought about."

Brutus frowned. "So we use twenty sentences because people like finding holes in five?"

"Exactly."

Brutus looked back down at the page with open dislike. "I hate clever people."

Boren, seated two places away, raised his head immediately. "That sounds like discrimination against me."

Gregor did not even look up from his contract. "You’re safe."

A few laughs moved through the room before everyone returned to reading.

Vanthrice was probably the most careful of them.

She did not rush, did not ask unnecessary questions, and did not skip anything simply because Sage had already explained it verbally.

Her bronze spear rested against the wall behind her while she turned each page only after reaching the final line, occasionally stopping to compare one clause with another.

She asked only two questions during the entire process, both about voting restrictions and the conditions under which forced buyback could be triggered.

Once Sage answered them, she simply nodded and continued. Valeria, in contrast, finished far earlier than almost everyone else.

She read quickly but without appearing careless, turned the final page, placed the contract back on the table, and sat there with her arms folded as though waiting for the rest of the room to catch up.

Caelis was surprisingly fast as well. He had no particular love for administrative work, but his mind was sharp and practical, and once he understood the logic behind the contract, the rest of the clauses became easy to follow.

At Sage’s request, he started keeping a temporary checklist of who had completed their reading, who still had questions, and who was ready to sign, mostly because someone needed to keep the room organized while Lyana prepared the proper registry sheets and checked that each contract matched the correct shareholder percentage.

Lyana moved between the seats every now and then, answering questions about the documentation itself and placing small markers beside pages that needed signatures or initials.

Boren remained the main source of trouble.

Every few minutes, his hand went up.

"Boss, this paragraph says the Guild can retain profits for emergency reserves. Does that reduce my money?"

"Yes."

Boren’s face fell.

A few minutes later his hand went up again.

"This one says expansion costs come before shareholder distributions. Does that also reduce my money?"

"For that period, potentially."

Boren stared at Sage as though personally betrayed.

Another five minutes passed.

"Boss."

Sage closed his eyes briefly. "What now?"

"This clause says the Guild may buy back shares if the owner violates certain serious conditions."

"Yes."

Boren leaned forward suspiciously. "At fair value?"

"At independently assessed fair value."

He slowly relaxed. "Good. Continue."

Gregor finally looked up. "You’re reading this entire contract only to find places where your future money might disappear."

Boren turned toward him without shame. "That is exactly why contracts exist. If nobody’s money could disappear, there would be no need for all this paper."

Sage hated that the logic was difficult to argue with.

As the reading continued, the mood slowly shifted from comedy toward something quieter.

The twenty Adventurers had been joking and questioning Sage like everyone else, but the reality of what they were about to sign was beginning to settle over them.

One of the men near the far end of the table stopped on the signature page for a long time without writing anything.

He was broad-shouldered, scarred across one cheek, and had spent years taking dangerous missions before joining the Guild, yet the hand holding his pen remained strangely still.

Sage noticed. "Something wrong?"

The Adventurer looked down at the document before shaking his head.

"No. It’s just... strange." He gave a short laugh that carried more disbelief than humor. "A few years ago, I was sleeping in cheap inns and taking whatever work people were willing to give me. Now there’s a document in front of me saying I own part of an organization that controls half the business in the Adventurer District and has branches across the region. I don’t think my mind has caught up yet."

Another Adventurer beside him smiled. "My parents are farmers. If I go home and tell them I own part of the Evergreen Regional Guild, my father will probably ask how much land that is."

That earned a warmer round of laughter.

"He’ll tell you to grow wheat on your percentage," Brutus added.

The Adventurer laughed harder. "He probably will."

Sage watched them quietly before finally pushing his chair back and standing. The conversation faded naturally as everyone looked toward him. He rested one hand on the round table, his expression serious but not heavy.

"I want everyone to remember one thing before signing," he said. "These shares aren’t payment for one expedition. If this were only about the Vault, I could have divided the gold, weapons, and Skill Stones yesterday and ended the matter."

Everyone listened.

"They’re recognition that you helped build this Guild. Some of you were here when we barely knew whether this organization would survive. Some joined later and carried it through missions, battles, attacks, expansion, and the Vault. You put your lives on the line for something that was never technically yours."

Sage glanced around the room. "Now part of it is."

The words were simple, but nobody laughed after that.

The man who had been hesitating slowly looked down at the signature line, picked up his pen, and signed.

That seemed to break the final barrier.

Valeria went first among the core group. She pulled the contract toward herself, signed her name in clean strokes without ceremony, then pushed it toward Sage for his countersignature.

Sage signed beneath hers as Guildmaster before Lyana placed the completed agreement into a separate stack. Vanthrice followed after checking one final page, her signature precise and neat.

Brutus signed with enough pressure that Sage briefly worried he might tear the paper, while Caelis finished his agreement and immediately marked his own name off the temporary checklist.

Gregor took longer. He stared at the percentage beside his name, then looked around the conference room and finally toward Sage.

A faint smile appeared across his face.

"Funny," he said. "I joined because I thought your Guild sounded interesting. Never expected to end up owning five and a half percent of it."

Sage smiled back. "You could still refuse."

Gregor laughed quietly, took the pen, and signed. "Not a chance."

Lyana signed afterward, then carefully checked the registry before passing everything to Sage. One by one, the twenty Adventurers followed. Some signed quickly. Others reread the final page before committing.

A few held their completed contracts for a moment afterward, clearly still trying to understand how much their lives had changed since joining the Guild.

Boren was last. Not because he was hesitant. Because he wanted to make absolutely certain his signature looked perfect.

He adjusted the paper twice, cleaned the pen tip, practiced his name on a spare sheet, then finally signed slowly and carefully beneath his 2.5% ownership declaration.

Once Sage countersigned it, Boren immediately reached for the contract.

Lyana slapped his hand away.

Boren looked offended. "What are you doing?"

"The original stays with the official records until it is registered and sealed."

"Where is my copy?"

"You’ll get one."

"When?"

"In a few days."

Boren stared at her. "Define a few."

Lyana smiled sweetly. "Longer if you keep asking."

Boren immediately sat back down.

When the last agreement had been checked, Sage looked toward the completed stack resting beside Lyana. Every name was there. Every percentage was accounted for.

Every person had agreed willingly.

The Evergreen Regional Guild no longer belonged to Sage alone.

He stood once more. "From today onward, all of you are not merely members of the Adventurer Guild," he said, his gaze passing across Valeria, Gregor, Vanthrice, Brutus, Caelis, Lyana, Boren, and the twenty Adventurers. "You are owners of the Evergreen Regional Guild."

Nobody cheered. Somehow, the moment felt too important for that.

Several people simply looked at one another, small smiles appearing across their faces as the meaning settled in.

Sage continued, "The original contracts will be registered, sealed, and placed in the Guild records. Each of you will receive an official copy within the next few days, along with a certificate showing your ownership percentage and basic rights. Lyana will make sure the records are prepared properly."

Lyana nodded. Boren immediately raised one finger.

Sage pointed at him. "Do not ask when."

Boren slowly lowered his hand. The room finally relaxed, and several people began pushing their chairs back, assuming the meeting was over.

Sage did not dismiss them. Instead, he slowly returned to his seat.

His expression changed. The movement was small, but everyone noticed.

Gregor stopped halfway out of his chair. Vanthrice looked toward Sage.

Even Valeria’s eyes sharpened slightly.

Sage folded his hands on the table.

"Now that this is finished," he said, "there’s something else I need to tell all of you."

The atmosphere inside the conference room changed immediately.