Asher collected his gear as usual, making his way out of the arena. The crowd had gone silent at the fact that he had so easily decimated his opponent in the semifinals. Asher knew that the man had gotten as far as he did through nothing but sheer luck. He had neither talent for fighting, nor did he have any overwhelming powers to speak of. There wasn't a chance the man would have held out until the very end, he was going against the very best that his ranking had.
Asher felt nervous himself at the thought of the next match. Even with the added strength he had recently obtained, he felt it may be a close battle. He knew that his next opponent would be a hard one to face, there was a reason why they had made it to the finals. The same could be said of Asher.
Asher noted that there was an extra person in the group from last time. It was the dirty young blacksmith, Orion. The rest of the group had sour looks on their faces due to the smell exuding off Orion. Asher wished he could explain to them that cultivating a blacksmith was in their best interests. Orion seemed skilled enough, he just needed actual training.
Asher had already come to the conclusion that it was going to be expensive to train Orion, but the payout would be so much higher in the end. Not only in monetary terms, but in the equipment he would be able to provide all of them due to that training. It was going to be a long time before they truly saw any benefits beyond a stream of income, but Asher believed it would work out in the end.
As he reached the group, there was once again a round of applause coming his way for a job well done. Asher still felt more than a little nervous at the thought of his next match. Killian motioned to him and Asher nodded. He just had some business to attend to with Orion before he dealt with Killian.
Orion had a broad smile on his face as he stated, "I can't believe how easily you faced that man. You truly thrashed him in every sense of the word." Orion had stopped speaking for a moment before he continued, "I presume you are banking on receiving money from this tournament in order to employ me?"
Asher responded, "You would be correct in assuming that. That being said, even if I don't succeed in taking first place in the finals, we can make the money to open a shop. It isn't that expensive for us."
Killian gave Asher a slight side eye at that comment. "And when were you planning on sharing this with the rest of us?" Killian asked. Asher began to explain, "I had talked this over with Leah some time ago. This fixes an issue that we will eventually run into in the future. It becomes harder for the guild to track bounties the higher in the ranks that we go."
Killian didn't respond, so Asher continued with what he was saying, "We need income, whether it's from working jobs or from a business. Having extra income is not a bad thing, especially with a blacksmith who is being trained to forge the best armor and weapons we could dream of. Better than anything you're wearing currently."
Killian didn't argue Asher's point at all. He had just wished that Asher had discussed the matter with more than just Leah. The two of them always did make the majority of the decisions for the group, but Killian was getting sick of no one else being informed beforehand. He chose to say nothing for the moment, but he did intend to speak with Asher later about the situation.
When Asher heard no response, he bid farewell to Orion and informed him to meet the group tomorrow after the next match. At that point, they would have plenty more coin to use to employ the blacksmith. From there, the group followed Asher to the guild hall. As soon as they were out of earshot of anyone else, Killian demanded, "Why did you not inform anyone else that you were planning on using the money from the tournament to fund a business? And Leah is not the only one that matters here. Everyone in this group is someone who has put their trust and faith in you. You need to begin acting like that matters, Asher."
Asher breathed in deeply before he answered. "I wasn't planning on using money from any of you. It was a joint venture between Leah and I in the end, but I do need the money from this tournament in order to go through with it. If it works out, all of us benefit. If it doesn't, it's only on Leah and myself. We had discussed it, we planned it out, we will take the fall if it fails. I don't believe it will, but there is no true knowing whether it will succeed or not. Do you understand?"
Killian nodded. His deep set dark brown eyes bored into Asher as he responded, "And you didn't think any of us would want to join in this venture? It's a good idea, we'd just like to be included. That includes Willow, who has been working closely with you quite a bit these days."
"I didn't think anyone would want to go into such a risky venture," Asher admitted. "We have to rent or buy a building, plus all the equipment to get it running. We'd potentially have to employ someone to work in it, there's so much that has to happen before it even begins to generate revenue."
"And we'll deal with that when we get to it," Killian stated. "Remember, I told you that we're all on your side. You don't have to do it all by yourself."
After that, Killian simply left without saying another word as Timothy followed right behind him. Asher was left with only Leah and Willow at that point. Willow was the first to speak. "I know I haven't done much to inspire trust in either you or Leah, but I would like to help. If I can't restore my name, at the least I would like to assist the two of you. I have been gaining quite a bit of money from betting on your fights and I intend to use it on your business. Just please, next time, talk to me as well." After that, Willow left the room, leaving only Asher and Leah.
"That didn't go quite as badly as I thought it would," Leah remarked.
"Honestly, yeah, it was a breath of fresh air that they found out and it seems to have worked out better than we thought it would."
Asher stretched and yawned loudly. "It's about time for us both to get some rest. Tomorrow is the big day. After that, we have quite a bit of work ahead of both of us."