"Huh? Wait... what?"

The staff member stood there, mouth agape, clearly not expecting to be refused so suddenly.

"No, you realize this is a direct request from the Guild Master!?"

And? That didn’t mean much to me. Ignoring someone’s schedule like this wasn’t something I could just accept.

"Even if you say that..."

To be honest, I didn’t have any real plans, but the way he just assumed I would drop everything and come "right now" rubbed me the wrong way. Meanwhile, the number of available requests was shrinking as other adventurers picked them up.

"Can we at least pick out a request first?"

"No, no…!?"

Just as he was about to protest further, the staff member suddenly clamped his mouth shut.

It seemed Nir, displeased, had started glaring at him. Whoa, easy there. Let’s calm down a bit.

As I fluffed the fur around his neck, Nir seemed to settle down.

"Tch, fine. Just come to the counter later."

The staff member, now able to speak again, walked off with a bitter expression.

"The Guild Master we met the other day didn’t seem like a bad person, though."

"Yeah. Maybe it’s just that guy."

"I hope so… Anyway, let’s look for a request."

Returning our focus to the request board, I noticed that, as expected, there were fewer requests than when I last checked. After refusing the staff member like that, ignoring the board completely wasn’t really an option anymore. I grabbed a random subjugation request and, to save time, headed to the counter where that staff member was.

"Sorry for taking up your time."

And now, for some reason, I was at the guild’s training grounds with the Guild Master.

When I showed up at his office, the staff member who had called me was getting an icy glare from the Guild Master, which was almost amusing. Apparently, he had been looking for me, but he hadn’t actually needed me to come to his office. The whole "come right now" thing had been a misunderstanding on the staff member’s part.

But then, the words that came next left me tilting my head in confusion.

"I’d like to have a mock battle with your contracted beast. Would that be alright?"

"…Excuse me?"

Nir and I exchanged glances, but since we had no reason to refuse, we ended up coming to the guild’s training grounds.

Oh, and that staff member had gone back to his usual duties and wasn’t here anymore.

"Alright, let’s get started!"

The Guild Master, clad in light armor and shouldering a greatsword, was raring to go. Instead of a training sword, he had brought out a real weapon, drawing the attention of other guild members who gathered around to watch.

As I listened to the murmurs of the crowd, I learned that the Guild Master was a former A-rank adventurer. If he was willing to go out of his way to have a mock battle with Nir, a Silver Wolf said to be C-rank on its own, then he probably already knew Nir’s true nature.

"The Guild Master’s going to play with you, Nir. Lucky you."

I patted Nir on the head, and his three tails wagged excitedly.

"Don’t go overboard, okay?"

Rio cautioned him, but Nir wasn’t that foolish. He should know how to hold back.

"Wafuu!"

As the battle began, Rio and I stepped back to join the spectators.

Without any formal signal, the Guild Master suddenly lunged at Nir.

At first, the crowd cheered. But as the fight went on, those cheers turned into murmurs. They were starting to realize that the Guild Master was the one being toyed with.

"This is just brutal."

"Yeah… Getting batted around by Nir’s tail like that… This is your fault, Shu. You said he was 'playing' with him…"

"Wait, how is this my fault?"

When I turned to Rio, she just gave me a wry smile.

I hadn’t expected there to be such a huge difference in their skill levels…

"Ooooh!?"

Just as I sighed, a collective gasp rose from the spectators. I turned my gaze back to the battlefield just in time to see the Guild Master soaring high into the air.

Midair, he managed to twist his body and barely land on his feet.

"Damn… I didn’t think I’d be played with this much…"

Using his greatsword as support, he caught his breath. It looked like the match was about to end. The Guild Master was probably reaching his limit.

Nir, don’t give me that "Are we done already?" look. Have some mercy on him.

"I give up. That was impressive…"

Sheathing his greatsword, the Guild Master raised both hands in surrender. Nir, realizing the match was over, trotted over to me. The spectators instinctively took a step back, but that was understandable.

"Seriously… You managed to tame such a rare monster. How did you do it?"

As I vigorously fluffed up Nir’s fur, the Guild Master approached with curiosity.

"Maybe it was because the food I gave him was really good?"

That Great Dragon must have tasted amazing. Nir had devoured it with great enthusiasm. Since it wasn’t a creature found in that forest, he must have thought it was a rare delicacy.

"I see. That’s something often said about taming, but I guess the food has to be exceptionally good for it to work."

The Guild Master nodded as if he had come to some grand realization. As long as he didn’t press for details, that was fine with me.

"But if even your contracted beast is that strong, then Frances’ words might actually…"

"…What are you talking about?"

"Huh? Oh, it’s nothing."

He had been muttering to himself, lost in thought, but when I asked, he brushed it off.