Chapter 616: Debt

Waiting nervously for the payment to get approved, Verdell found himself sitting down on a chair alongside Valerie as the older woman that had dismantled the crystal bunny had gone off to inform her superior about the situation and get the approval for buying the crystal bunny.

After all, though she had said the guild would buy the crystal bunny, she still had to go through her superior first because of how much gold was involved in this payment.

“Don’t worry, I’m sure it will be fine~” And maybe because his nervousness was visible on the outside, Valerie gently comforted him with a somewhat cheeky smile. Not the slightest bit affected by the vast amount of gold about to come her way.

“I know… Just feeling a bit nervous, this is the largest quantity of gold I have ever exchanged for through the guild. Even when I saved up in the past before- Ehm! No matter, in the past, the most gold I’ve ever had is a little over ten thousand!” Nodding his head in response as he forcibly calmed himself down, Verdell found his thoughts drifting away from the crystal bunny and the gold he was about to get his hands on.

Instead, his thoughts drifted towards the debt he had with the Holy Light Church. Wondering just how much gold it was, as he hadn’t personally seen, just how large that debt was. Only knowing that the ten thousand gold he had saved up beforehand had already vanished into thin air thanks to that debt.

Rustle~

And with nothing better to do, he slowly got up before going to a nearby magical artifact to read information on his adventurer’s card that couldn’t be seen normally. The magical artifact in question being inside the dismantling room for the simple reason of making payment easier, as the gold for monster parts could be directly exchanged through the magical artifact and get put onto the adventurer card.

Avoiding the hassle of carrying what would end up being hundreds if not thousands of gold coins for most adventurers.

Sure, it was nice to have the gold coins on hand, but the Adventurers Guild had existed for a long time and was recognized throughout the world as a trusted organization. Adventurers generally didn’t see much need to carry gold coins or other coins around beyond what they needed for daily life.

After all, beyond making life more convenient, the adventurer card also ensured that nobody would be able to get their hands on the gold coins of someone else. Ensuring banditry and other such practices remained low among adventurers.

Creak~

“Huh? You are already there? Great! Saves me the trouble~” But just as he was about to place his card down and see how large his debt with the church was, the older staff member reemerged from the door just beside the magical artifact.

Wasting no time as she snatched the adventurer card out of his hand before passing it through the magical artifact-

Ding~!

A soft sound followed by the brief flashing of a blue light signaling that the payment had gone through as she handed the card back to him before doing the same for Valerie’s card.

“That is everything. 60.000 gold have been transferred to both of you for a total of 120.000. If you encounter any similar rare monsters in the future like this little crystal bunny, the guild is more than happy to buy them from you. Of course, in case you run into another crystal bunny in the future, I encourage you to try and keep the pelt intact, as undamaged, it can fetch far more than just a hundred thousand gold.”

Not noticing the speechless look on the face of the dwarf, the older staff member kindly continued talking before the two of them were shown out of the dismantling room.

Although, it was more so Valerie who dragged the speechless Verdell along, as the two of them soon enough found themselves back outside the dismantling room inside the main hall of the branch guild building.

“No, I have to check if it was repaid!” And as if he regained some strength after leaving the dismantling room, Verdell wasted no time rushing towards another nearby magical artifact for reading the information stored on his adventurer card.

Hesitating for only a short instant before he inserted the card. Scanning through the useless information that generally just recorded his rank, name, class and other things before locking onto the asset section of the information.

[Assets]

[All assets are counted in gold coin.]

[Balance: 0]

[Debt (Holy Light Church): 9.372]

And as he looked through his assets, he realized that the payment for the crystal bunny hadn’t been enough to repay his debt to the Holy Light Church.

On the contrary, he still had around 10.000 gold coins left to repay…

Put together with the ten or so thousand I had saved up and already paid off, doesn’t that mean the total I owed to the Holy Light Church for that damnable pillar is 80.000 gold coins!? EIGHTY THOUSAND GOLD COINS FOR A PILLAR?!

Feeling himself seething without anywhere to vent the anger he was feeling over realizing how he had been made to pay 80.000 gold coins for a single ornamental pillar, Verdell forced himself to open up the detailed description that was attached to this debt where the Holy Light Church explained its reason for this astronomically high price for a single pillar.

[Debt authorized in cooperation with Financial Assistance Department of the Adventurers Guild, Samantha and Third Financial Investment Division Head of the Holy Light Church, Timothy]

[General description of the case: Adventurer, Verdell, destroyed a central pillar depicting the heroic last stand of a cardinal of the church. Carved by the now dead master carver Steven Stonebringer. Destruction was accidental and happened when the monster pet of Verdell collided with the pillar alongside Verdell.]

[Total Value of the destroyed pillar: 10.000 Gold Coins]

[Historical Value: 65.000 Gold Coins]

[Emergency Financial Support Fee: 5000 Gold Coins]

[Total Value: 80.000 Gold Coins]

[Total assets of Verdell at time of debt issuance: 10.628 Gold Coins]

[Repayment Date: Within 50 Years, extension possible depending as a member of a longer-lived race and potential for extending life through reaching the S Rank]

“…”

Looking at the rather long description of his debt, Verdell had no idea what to say as his gaze remained firmly locked on the historical value section of his debt.

If not for the fact that the pillar Scaly ended up destroying had some special historical significance, he would not just have been able to pay it off back then but would also have avoided the emergency financial support fee from the guild.

After all, he knew that the only reason this fee came to be, was because the guild had stepped in for him and ended up paying the Holy Light Church in his stead. Even if the debt was in the name of the Holy Light Church, it was in fact with the guild itself, as the guild had already paid what he owed to the Holy Light Church.

He knew about the financial assistance department of the guild but had never believed he would end up benefiting from its existence before today. Knowing full well that without the guild stepping in for him, there would have been no way he managed to get out of that situation so easily back then.

Still… From what he knew about the financial assistance department, the general limit of an A Rank Adventurer was 50.000 gold coins and that was only if it was someone viewed as trustworthy in the eyes of the guild.

The only reason why he had been able to get the gold coins needed to repay the Holy Light Church back then should be because of him already having quite a bit of gold coins to his name and also being a dwarf that generally lived a bit longer than humans and beastkin. Along with the fact that he was already someone at the top of the A Rank.

If not for that, there was no way the guild’s financial assistance department would have gone over the normal limit without any problems.

Thinking about how he might have ended up getting dragged away by the Holy Light Church to help in some dangerous work to pay of this debt, Verdell suddenly found himself feeling a little less resentful looking at the 5000 gold coin fee the guild had taken for taking on the risk of paying his debt with the Holy Light Church for him.

Of course, only a little, as he was still feeling a bone deep pain looking at that enormous fee that was essentially just the guild printing free money through him.

Something that was only more so the case given how “fast” he was repaying this debt thanks to the crystal bunny he and Valerie had successfully managed to kill and sell to the very guild who had bought said crystal bunny…