Osric enters the guild with a limp and obvious covered up injuries.
Garrick walked by his side with a relaxed smile.
"So what's first?"
"I need to ask Franklin about storage options for my money and whether it's possible to do that here, since I don't trust anyone else."
"Hm, sounds good."
The atmosphere in the guild building was the same as always.
There wasn't much activity inside. About a dozen adventurers in total. Some discussing plans among them selves at the tables to the left. Others looking at the mission board to the right and for temporary party members. Most other active adventurers were either on missions outside or not working today.
Osric and Garrick walked straight forward, right past the front desk slightly to the right from them in the center of the hall.
The clerk nodded at Osric. By this point, Osric was well known to all adventurers and guild staff.
The middle aged man was just one of two clerks that Osric ever saw behind the desk, when Franklin wasn't there himself.
Usually only one person was enough to work at the front desk, since there wasn't much traffic. Adventurers only approached the front desk for accepting and completing missions most of the time.
Osric shortly glanced at the stairs behind the front desk. Then Osric and Garrick reached Franklin's office to the far left corner in the hall.
"Knock. Knock."
"Come in."
"Hey, Franklin." Osric said.
Garrick just nodded with an awkward smile. He remembered how he was knocked out cold just recently.
"Oh, it's you guys. This is good, since I wanted to talk to you about something important, Osric. So what's up?"
Osric was curious but decided to put it to the side.
He then told Franklin about his current situation as well as about his fight yesterday, since Franklin interrupted him a couple of times to hear about it.
"I see. I heard this morning about you becoming the champion, but didn't hear the details. No wonder you look so beaten up."
"Yes." Osric simply answered.
"Well, about the storage. I can help you with that. I'm glad you took my advice about coming to me more for support since you have my backing now."
Garrick looked curious. He didn't know about Osric and Franklin's deal.
William and Paul knew about it, but Jayson and Garrick were newer members and Osric didn't know how much he could trust them yet.
"Sounds good. So how exactly does it work with the storage?" Osric asked.
"Follow me. The storage is in the basement. Is that all your money in those big bags?" Franklin pointed at the bags Garrick was holding for Osric.
"Yes."
"Alright, let's go."
The three of them exited through the backdoor of the building after stepping out of the office.
Right outside was the yard and training ground. They took a right, leading to a narrow staircase a few meters away that went down.
Frankin pulled out a rusty key to open the thick iron door. Unlike the guild building itself, the basement was made of stone.
They walked through a dark and narrow hallway towards a reinforced steel door.
Osric and Garrick were both surprised by the security here.
'I didn't even know they had a basement, but to think it even has reinforced steel doors. The guild hall looks so simple and poor in comparison.' Osric thought.
"By the way, what's on the second floor of the building? I've only seen a few guild members go up there."
"That space is for our administration and investigation teams, including all the paperwork that isn't classified."
"How come your office isn't up there too?" Garrick asked.
"I prefer staying on the first floor. That way I can respond faster to any emergencies."
"Makes sense."
As Franklin finally unlocked the multiple locks on the reinforced steel door, they entered a much larger hallway.
There were multiple iron doors to both sides and another large reinforced steel door at the end.
"What exactly do you store in this place?" Osric asked.
"In the rooms to the left are mostly rations and equipment for emergencies. To the right, the rooms have valuables and classified documents."
'Why did he tell me so readily? Does he actually trust me that much? Even with Garrick here?' Osric questioned himself.
"What about the one at the end?" Garrick asked.
"I can't tell you that."
"Alright."
'Guess there are things he can't trust us with yet. Still, it's kind of relieving that Franklin is this way.' Osric thought.
"Not yet, at least. You'll find out in the future, Osric."
Osric nodded.
Garrick also understood what this meant.
'Seems he trusts in Osric enough to consider including him in important matters. But he specifically addressed him this time. Meaning he doesn't trust me.'
'That's understandable. He probably only let me this far inside because he doesn't see me as a threat, not because he trusts me as much as Osric.'
—
After getting a small storage space inside one of the basement rooms, Osric stored his gold coin and 22 silver coins in there, while keeping the remaining 20 silver and 119 copper on hand.
Unlike Garrick before, Franklin wasn't surprised by how much money Osric had earned in this short time.
Both Osric and Garrick however were surprised by how much valuables Franklin had stored here.
Most couldn't be seen because they were in chests and on shelves, but some of the bigger stuff that couldn't fit in anywhere and just stood in the middle of the room inside large barrels, were unbelievable for people like them.
Garrick wondered why the guild appeared so poor when Franklin had all this available. He assumed it was just for emergencies or that Franklin was greedy despite his impression.
Osric however, knew otherwise.
'It's clear that this is all he accumulated while growing his faction, to stand up against House Greydell.'
'It makes sense to keep the poor image of the guild. That way, they can stay under the radar. Franklin is a lot more thorough and strategic than I first thought.'
Osric found this fact good, but it also reminded him to be more careful around Franklin. He trusted him to a certain degree and definitely more than most people, but he knew that anyone could stab your back at any time—
Especially in Ashbrook.