The First Legendary Beast Master

The Mage was still admiring his fur in the mirror when a Portal opened on the street, and a small group of mages entered the courtyard with cautious glances at the Gargoyles.

They had tried to travel straight into the yard, but the deterrent force of the Gargoyle spell had forced them to relocate, and now all of the statues were glaring at them.

The ones from the back of the house had even come to the front to see who the audacious intruders were.

Once they were assured that these people were just rude enough to want to show up in the middle of someone’s lawn, the Gargoyles returned to their posts. That let the mages relax a little, but left them with profound questions about who had done the enchantments on this Guild house and their level of paranoia. A dozen Gargoyles for such a small property was overkill.

Even the most contested of Noble Houses would either have two at the gate or four on the corners of the roof, so they could watch the whole perimeter.

"Department head... who are you? Where is Department Head Nalek?" One of the new arrivals asked.

"I am Nalek, you idiot. Look at my name with your interface. The Naga Queen here produced a new hair regrowth formula so powerful that it works even for a Bone Bear.

Your next journey awaits at

But that’s not the important part. The Rune Master here is unwilling to travel, but was willing to take teachers as apprentices for the break so that he could teach them the basics of one of the Runic Arts." Nalek insisted.

The four new arrivals took down their hoods, revealing long blonde hair and extended pointy ears that could only be Elven, or a similar Fae species.

They didn’t have the beauty that Karl associated with the Elves, but it seemed rude to mention that, especially if they were actually another species that regularly got slandered as ugly elves.

"I am Moira, and this is my partner, Mash. That is Dala, and her Guardian, Derek. What arts might you be able to teach? We were chosen because we don’t yet have a trade skill." The self-appointed leader of the new arrivals asked.

"I can offer Runesmithing, Runic Alchemy or, if you’re compatible, Rune Priest. Runic Architecture is also an option, but more strongly attuned to Dwarven construction."

The four all gave identical disgusted looks, and Karl became quite certain they were at least part Elf.

Then, he realized that all his Elven knowledge came from one trip to an Elven village, and the children’s stories of the Golden Dragon Nation, which had neither Elves nor Dwarves living there in the modern era. So, it might just be a regional issue.

Moira and Dala nodded to each other, the Moira spoke again.

"I will choose Runesmithing, while Dala will take Runic Alchemy."

Karl nodded. "And the other two? Mash and Derek, was it?"

Dala frowned. "They will do what we tell them to do."

Ophelia smirked, and Tessa turned away to laugh. That was quite the relationship they had. Or perhaps they had all misunderstood, and it wasn’t four teachers, but two and their assistants? The phrasing of the introduction sounded like they might be married.

Mash smiled at Karl and shrugged. "I have been Instructor Moira’s Research Partner for over a century now. The same is true for Derek, though he is officially Lady Dala’s Guardian, appointed by her family."

Dala sighed, and chose to elaborate. "We teach in the ladies’ academy. There are no male teachers in our faculty. Nalek is the department head in charge of Runic Studies, but he primarily works on the male side of the Academy.

Will that be an issue?"

Karl shook his head. "Both of my existing apprentices are female, but I don’t discriminate. If you’re all here to learn, I will ensure that you learn. Now, I suppose that I should make an employment and non-compete contract."

The five instructors immediately began to panic, and Nalek took out a stack of papers. "Overlord, if you would not mind, we do have a standardized employment contract with us."

It seemed that the Cat Demons had a reputation in the neighbouring nations as well.

Karl set the contract out on the table, and memories of doing paperwork at the mines came rushing back to him. He might not know many fancy things, but he was pretty good at reading legalese when it came to contracts.

Karl read through the contract, and took out a pen to strike a few clauses that were blatantly in favour of the Academy, including a seemingly unlimited requirement for him to make "Demonstration materials" for their future students.

He also struck out their attempt to claim a portion of his profits after he had taken them as employees. No way was he going to pay continual royalties in perpetuity to a couple of mages who would only work for him for a month or two.

Then he struck out the requirement that he teach them the "Full Extent of his skills". That simply wasn’t going to happen.

Finally, as a cheeky little addendum, the added a clause that the mine had loved to put in employment clauses. Their personal non-compete clause.

[Should the contracted use knowledge, tools or materials provided by the contractor to act against the Contractor in the future, the Contractor reserves the right to take any and all appropriate punitive or legal actions to nullify the threat to their operations or mitigate losses in profit.]

In practice, the mine operators used the clause to disappear troublemakers without legal repercussions. But Karl could use it to keep them from trying to set up Rune crafted item shops to compete with him.

[Or to remove their heads to take back the knowledge.] Rae added.

Karl turned over the edited contract so that the Mages could look it over. They looked moderately annoyed at the clauses he had removed, but not surprised.

Eventually, Dala made a single stroke of her pen, and held up the contract for Karl to inspect.

She had removed ’or’ from between punitive and legal actions.

That greatly changed the meaning of the phrase, but Karl smiled and nodded in agreement. The contract still didn’t state what nation’s laws the actions would be taken under, and he was certain that he could find one who approved of any definition he wanted to assign to the words ’legal action’ if there were issues in the future.

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